Sharazade

Well, after all that kerfuffle about piracy and plagiarism on Amazon, we have a breath of fresh air today. The lovely Justine Elyot, an author who definitely writes her own books and writes them well, talks about setting. Actually, my story ideas often start from a setting, so I’m particularly pleased that she chose to discuss this topic, and also introduce her new book, Meeting Her Match (with an excerpt!). Without further ado, then: Justine!

*  *  *  *  *

Where She Met Her Match

Nearly all of my favourite books have at least one thing in common – an unforgettable setting, whether it’s the wild and windy moors or a teeming Dickensian London or the decadent surroundings of Roissy in the The Story of O. So whenever I write, I’m always keen to make the setting an integral part of the action.

Writers, of course, have the option of creating their very own places. I’ve done this before and I’m sure I’ll do it again, but this time it was important for me to place Meeting Her Match in the real world, because this is a book that explores the pleasures and perils of turning fantasy into reality. I wanted a sense that these events could really have happened, and that they could have happened in the town where I’ve set them.

So where is this town? It’s Portsmouth, the maritime city on England’s south coast where Dickens was born and Lord Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, lies in dry dock. It’s a city I know very well, so writing about it was easy. I was able to see in my mind’s eye the point from which Cherry waves off her spank-happy sailor lover – in fact, here it is:

 

And here’s the landmark Spinnaker Tower, of which Cherry and His Lordship have such a fine view whilst dining in the town’s most expensive restaurant.

 

Of course, not everything in the book exists. I made up the school Cherry works in, though the tough areas it serves are all too real. What I categorically didn’t want was an exotic location, even though some of the things that happen there are outrageous enough!

I’ll give you an example…

 *  *  *  *  *

By the time the bell rang, the flat smelled delicious and I was equally fragrant, dressed in a slinky black halterneck dress and stockings. Even if nothing happened, it seemed best to be prepared.

Justin and Maz were kitted out for a smart Friday night, Justin in a smart blue shirt and dark trousers, Maz in knee-length boots and a stretchy tube dress, her blonde hair swept up in a spiky topknot. They could have been any couple on the dinner-party circuit, were it not for the classic brown leather doctor’s bag Justin hefted on to the coffee table once I’d ushered them into the living room.

“Is this OK?” he asked, as I took their coats.

“Oh, fine,” I said, eyeing the bag with mingled curiosity and alarm. “It looks as if you’re here to give me a medical. Is there a stethoscope in there?”

Maz laughed. “No stethoscope, but plenty of things to get your pulse racing.”

“Perhaps we should leave the contents of the bag for after dinner,” cautioned Justin, but I was not sure I could wait.

“Can’t I just have a sneak preview?”

 Justin smiled evilly. “You want to start with a little bit of headspace play before dinner? Well, why not. Okay, this is how it’s going to be, Keris. We do nothing that you aren’t happy with. As soon as things seem to be headed in a direction you don’t like, you stop by saying the word ‘Mars’.”

“Mars?”

“Well, yeah, it’s Maz’s safeword, so we tend to use it when other players join in too.”

“OK. Mars. The god of war.”

“Right.” He smirked. “Before we start, I’ll explain a few things about us. I’m a top. I’m always a top. That’s what I am. Maz, on the other hand, is a switch. Usually, she’s submissive, but occasionally, especially when third, fourth or fifth parties are involved, she will top, either alone or with me. Is this clear so far?”

“Wine?” I offered the bottle, filling three glasses when they both nodded. “Er, yes. You always do the spanking and sometimes Maz joins in, if she’s in the mood, or she might prefer to take the pain instead.”

“Exactly.”

He sat down, and Maz and I suddenly felt able to do the same. Justin had the strange knack of making you want to follow his lead. “So, if you want two spankers, you can have that. Or if you want somebody to share the pain, Maz is your girl. But tonight, since you say you’re new to all this, you’ll probably just want a one-on-one scene, and that’s fine. We don’t have any expectations, so there’s no pressure. Was there a particular script, so to speak, that you wanted to follow tonight?”

*  *  *  *  *

Well, was there? If you want to find out more, here are the details:

In the internet age, it should be easy for like-minded fetishists to find and connect with each other. Or so Cherry thought. Her decision to enter the wild and wonderful world of BDSM leads her to some interesting and unexpected places. She soon finds herself on ‘the scene’ and her insatiable curiosity takes her to orgies, slave auctions and mansion houses full of trainee submissives, but where will she find her perfect dom? Will Cherry ever meet her match?

Available in paperback: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Meeting-Her-Match-Justine-Elyot/dp/1908086157/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1325670629&sr=8-1

Or for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Her-Match-ebook/dp/B006C4C3SK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1325688011&sr=8-2

 

Justine Elyot is the UK bestselling author of On Demand, The Business of Pleasure and Erotic Amusements. When she isn’t buried under a pile of new projects, you can find her waving at the world from her website http://justineelyot.com/ or gassing about trivialities on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/JustineElyot.

 

Thank you to the fabulous Shar, a writer who knows a great deal about locations and settings, for having me today – it’s been a real pleasure.

 This is a post about cheating and deception. That’s the juicy stuff. But in order to get there, I’m going to put in a bit of background. I promise you, though, we’ll get to juicy stuff!

Books are not quite like many other consumer products. If you buy a refrigerator and you really like it, you’re not likely to go out and get a half dozen more. But if you buy a book and you really enjoyed reading it, you are likely to buy more — you’d be repeating a pleasurable experience. I think that’s one reason authors (OK, most authors) aren’t competitive with each other. More readers, and more happy readers, means more readers for everyone.

The community of erotica writers I’ve found to be very supportive and helpful. If someone posts a new release or a good review on Facebook or Google+, other authors are quick to “like” it and share the link and write supportive comments. Authors who post questions (To what publishers might I submit a story with elements x, y, and z? What word count constitutes a “novella” and how much should I charge for one? and so on) get helpful answers and encouragement. We are, after all, in the same business, doing the same work, making the same effort.

That last point is important: doing the same work.

Recently, I’ve been trying my hand at publishing. I self-published a short story (very short! so I included a ‘bonus story,’ and priced it cheap), and then I published two titles by another author, James Wood, under my 1001 Nights Press imprint.

One of Mr. Wood’s titles, Taking Jennifer, I enrolled in Amazon’s Kindle Select program. To participate in this program, you need to give Amazon exclusive content; you can’t have the same title currently available anywhere else. A controversial move, on Amazon’s part, for sure. In return, you get essentially two benefits:

• The book is available in the Kindle Lending Library, which means that members of Amazon’s Prime program can borrow it free. Prime members are allowed to borrow a whopping one title free each month. Authors are paid a fee per borrow that’s calculated in this way: Amazon has a pot of money ($500,000 for December 2011, and $700,000 for January 2012) that is divided equally among all borrowed titles. The price per borrow for December 2011 came out to $1.70. That’s a good deal if your book normally costs .99, and not a good deal if your book normally costs 9.99; however, it is (some feel) increased visibility in general. (Taking Jennifer normally costs $2.99, resulting in a net to the publisher of about $2.00 minus a few cents for a “delivery charge.”)

• You can offer your book for free for 5 days out of 90. (To be in the Kindle Select program, you must enroll in renewable 90-day segments.) While your book is free, obviously you don’t earn anything for a download — but since people like free, it’s likely that your book will be downloaded a lot. This could lead to sales of other titles, if people liked the one they tried. It can lead to reviews, and most importantly, it will raise your visibility in Amazon’s system. You might start showing up tied to other bestsellers in the “Customers who purchased X also bought Y” pages, and that’s very helpful. Many (although not all) authors report increased sales after their book has been available for free.

So, I put Taking Jennifer up for free for two days in December, and sat back to watch the results. (Note: This is one of the fun things about self-publishing, for the mildly obsessive — you can keep refreshing and checking your stats!)

Free books show up in a separate list from paid books, of course, which is only fair. Jennifer did pretty well, I think — at the end of promotion, it reached #21 in free erotica on the US Amazon site, and #3 on the UK site.

Check out the #3 title — that’s mine — and then the #1 title. Naturally, I was curious to see who was doing better; particularly because of the title. I wouldn’t mind at all being ‘beaten,’ if you care to see it that way, by a book called My Sister’s Best Friend, but … My Sister Bestfriend? Really? And with that cover image? It’s not even the right shape, and there’s no title or author name or anything. Like the author didn’t even try. My cover image was done by Shaina Richmond, author of the popular Safe with Me series. I don’t think it was enormously difficult, but still, it took some time and negotiation and playing around with fonts (and talent) to get it just right. Oh, and obviously I had to purchase the cover image. That’s the process most authors go through: You select an image from a stock image site, you pay to download it, and you add a title and author name. Some people use more than one image, or use image-editing software to enhance the picture. And … you can pretty much tell when someone hasn’t gone through those steps.

So, I clicked on the book, and then to the author page for Maria Cruz. Wow, lots of erotica books, which all had the same sort of, um, unprofessional-looking covers (even one spelled wrong: Domenating Her). All erotica, and … one horror book. That seemed out of place, so I clicked on it, and then on “Look Inside” and read a bit. It was, well, it was pretty good prose. Very good prose. Almost … suspiciously good prose. So I googled a bit. Ah. It was Bram Stoker’s Dracula (though the cover was lifted from a graphic novel site).

Now, Dracula is actually in the public domain now. However, under the terms of the Kindle Select program, public domain works that you re-publish are not allowed — remember that exclusivity clause?

It’s been my experience that people rarely cheat only once. So I started clicking on her other titles, the erotica ones. Surprise, surprise. They were all lifted from other places as well, predominately from the Literotica site. Now, it’s possible — highly unlikely, but still possible — that Maria Cruz was actually the true author of these 40+ titles on Literotica from back in 2006, and had just wanted, for her own reasons, to use 40 separate pen names. No law against that. But there was still Amazon’s policy that books in the Kindle Select program (as Maria Cruz’s were) couldn’t be available anywhere else (like Literotica), whether you’d written them yourself or not.

So that pissed me off. Other authors in Amazon’s program were abiding by the terms; they were playing fair. And this one wasn’t. And how was her book so high in the rankings? By being downloaded a lot, sure … but why was something with a crap cover and poor grammar being downloaded so much? I will let readers draw their own conclusions, but … I think there are ways, if one is skilled with computer-y matters, to essentially stuff the ballot box, if you know what I mean.

Was Maria Cruz hurting other authors? Well, yes and no. As I said before, if one author is successful, it doesn’t at all mean that another author won’t be successful. Authors don’t compete in that sense. But in the “game” of sales rankings, yes — Maria’s being at #1 means that someone else is not at #1, and so on down the line, and sales rankings mean increased visibility, and that visibility helps all of your books. And if Maria’s books were being borrowed, then she was getting a slice of Amazon’s half-million dollar pie. At one point in December, Maria Cruz posted on the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing forum that she’d had over 700 borrows in December (Taking Jennifer had 12).

I wound up telling this story to investigative journalist Adam Penenberg, who wrote about it for Fast Company; as he noted, Maria Cruz was far from the only erotica pirater selling on Amazon, and the piracy problem went beyond erotica. But I think erotica is particularly vulnerable because of sites like Literotica where authors post stories for free. They don’t register copyrights (which would cost them $35), and they pretty much all use pen names. Maria Cruz was lifting stories posted over 5 years ago; it’s quite possible the original authors weren’t even writing anymore, let alone scouring the Net to see if their work had been reposted.

Is there a solution? Currently, it’s pretty easy to upload a book to Amazon. You open an account, you format your book, and you upload it. Amazon does require a bank account and tax ID number; perhaps Amazon can do something at their end, then, as long as they are aware a problem exists. But how would they know? They don’t check each title. (Perhaps they should?)

But definitely, buyers should check. Before you purchase a book from Amazon, check the “Look Inside” feature (well, you would anyway, wouldn’t you?), and then google a phrase or two. Generally, a string of seven words in between quotation marks is enough to pull up a matching text, if one exists (although not with stock phrases such as “Once upon a time” and the like.) Some pirates will change proper names, and might make minor changes such as “brother” to “step-brother,” but if you take some innocuous middle sentence, that should suffice. Go ahead and try it with text from the screen shot (from Ms. Cruz’ Domenating Her). Put in the first few words: “Click. Click. As they gradually awoke” and see what comes up.

Also, at least with erotica, be suspicious of cover images that don’t really look like covers:

And finally… if you do find a book on Amazon that is clearly pirated, please report it! It seems to me (though it’s not entirely clear) that the link for reporting a copyright violation is intended to be for people whose own work has been stolen. Still, though, you could certainly report it there. Another place to report it would be as “inappropriate content” and then from the drop-down menu as “violates the Amazon Kindle terms of service.” In the Comments section, you could paste in the link to the same work attributed to another author.

Some people still look down on self-published books, thinking that they’re of low quality and poorly edited. And if that’s the case, then that will come out eventually in the reviews. And people have different tastes, of course. But every book up there should be the author’s own work. THAT we have the right to demand, authors and readers alike.

*  *  *  *  *

 

 

It’s holiday time! Time for toys! As this is an erotica blog, I’m sure people are thinking about sex toys — such a nice gift, because they often please both the giver and the receiver.

However, many sex toys mean batteries, and batteries mean … guilt. Am I the only one who feels this way? I have all these things that take batteries — alarm clocks, vibrators, laptop, camera, cell phone, vibrators (OK, so I have more than one!) — and they all take batteries. And I know batteries are bad. They’re expensive, and they’re made of toxic materials, and they’re hard to dispose of. Plus they’re inconvenient. Why do alarm clock batteries only give out before you have an early morning plane flight? Why do vibrator batteries … well, there isn’t really any good time for those to give out, is there? And then they’re hard to dispose of, so you get a drawer full of batteries waiting for you to take them to whatever place you take your old batteries, and then you open a drawer six months later and you have no idea if these are old batteries waiting to go out, or new batteries liberated from their packaging, or semi-new batteries that you took out of something else for some reason… it’s a mess.

Of course you know the solution: rechargeable batteries. But when you look at them, they seem expensive! You know they’re cheaper in the long run, but they’re right up next to the Valu-Pak of cheap-in-the-short-term disposable batteries, plus you’d have to buy the charger, and then of course it takes all night to charge them, and … I know how it is.

That’s why I’m going to recommend one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received (no, not the corded — and therefore battery-less — Hitachi Magic Wand, although that’s very nice too): It was a Battery System. Or that’s what I call it. A family member poked around my house, took note of what size batteries I used, and bought me two sets of everything I’d need plus a nice big charger that would hold all of them. See how it works? You have one set of batteries in the charger at all times. When some batteries you’re using need recharging, you just swap them with the other fully charged ones. No waiting! It’s the sort of thing everyone ought to do for him/herself, and yet most of us just don’t get around to it. To have someone else do it for you — well, it was very, very nice.

So I pass this on as my Green Christmas/Holiday tip: Buy the object of your affections two sets of rechargeable batteries and a charger. Heck, open one set and the charger and have one set already charged by Christmas morning! If you made enough money this year, throw in a vibrator as well. And then when the recipient asks what the batteries are for, hand ‘em that package. ;)

Of course, as an author, I’d be remiss in not mentioning another very obvious Green Christmas gift: ebooks! Easy to purchase, easy to give, no delivery charges, no fuel used in transportation, and so on. You can read ebooks on your Kindle or your Nook or your computer. Oh… don’t have a Kindle? Did you know that by commenting on this post, you’re entered to win a Kindle? Yes! And then click here for the full schedule of Blissemas blog posts, because you can comment on each one for an additional chance to win.

Whether you win the Kindle or not, I’d be happy to send you your choice of a number of erotic ebooks, either to you or to a gift recipient you specify. Available in all sorts of formats, and can even be emailed directly to a Kindle or a Nook. Just mention in your comment that you’re interested, and I’ll email you (your email shows to me when you leave a comment, but does NOT show to the world in general, unless you specifically type it out for them) and we can sort out what you’d like.

I’m interested in hearing other people’s Green Holiday suggestions!

Special thanks to  sscreations (portfolio here) for the use of the red batteries image and to digitalart (portfolio here) for the use of the green battery image.

I once made myself very unpopular at a Harry Potter launch. They had one of those jars, you know, filled with jelly beans — Bertie Bott’s, naturally — and you had to guess how many beans there are in the jar to win it. It wasn’t quite a drawing, of course, more like a guessing, but it had the same feel. The launch of a popular book in a small bookstore meant that there was quite a crowd of people around the jar, filling out their guesses and dropping their names into the collection box.

“I never win these things,” sighed one woman, “I wonder why I bother.” And all around her was a chorus of agreement: “I know! I’ve never won anything” and so on. And without thinking, I said, “Oh, really? I win them all the time.” Well. I hadn’t felt such a cold, disapproving silence since I once heard a man say, “Oh, I loved high school. I was really popular.”

It’s true, though. I do win things. Not big things, never the Caribbean cruise or the 42″ television (not that I have room for one anyway), but second and third prizes. $25 gift certificates from local merchants. A basket of decorative bathroom soaps. A live Christmas tree. A pair of binoculars. A tiny flashlight that says on the side, “The Grim Grotto is dark” (Lemony Snicket launch, that one). A cordless drill.

Online drawings, too — three books from Victoria Blisse. A book from Rebecca Bond. A prize package from author Casey Sheridan that included a keychain, a mini bullet vibrator (that came with two sets of batteries), and a $10 Amazon gift card. Also a book from Sommer Marsden, a leather collar (black with red hearts!) from Babeland from sex toy reviewer Geeky Nymph, two anthologies from Lucy Felthouse, 10 pounds of organic coffee, and a book from Elizabeth Coldwell. Eat your heart out, Charlie Sheen!

Why do I win so much? Well, probably because I enter so much. I mean, there are plenty of drawings that I don’t win, too. But while I can assure you that people really do give away the prizes they say they will, you also can’t win if you never enter. My rules for entering are simple: I never enter a drawing for something I don’t want, and I never pay money to enter. I’ll pay time — I’ll fill out the form, leave the comment, repost the link, that sort of thing. But no money, not even a postage stamp.

The pattern seekers among you might have noticed that I win a lot of books. For one thing, I like to read, so I enter a lot of book drawings. It’s also the case, though, that authors offer a lot of drawings, and — no big surprise — they tend to give away books. Ebooks are especially popular for erotica authors because you don’t have to pay for postage, and your recipient can be nice and discreet. The plain brown Internet wrapper. But it’s also because authors love to be read, and because authors understand that new readers hesitate to take a chance on books they don’t know. Even if you like how a given author blogs, you might not be sure you’d like the novel. Thus, a giveaway is a chance for the author to find a new reader, and the reader to find a new author. That new reader might even leave a nice review or rating up at some site, although I’ve never seen a giveaway that even suggested that, let alone required it. It’s just a secret hope. ;)

I suppose people might be wondering if this post is going to include a drawing. Well, it’s going to do several things.

First is to announce a big giveaway that’s coming up, starting tomorrow (December 1, 2011) and running through the 22nd. The prize is … a Kindle! Yes! That’s one sweet prize! Hostess Victoria Blisse has teamed up with 22 blog authors (including moi) to create Blissemas, an event of free reads and essays and jokes and recipes and general holiday-related fun, culminating with a draw for a Kindle. Each day brings you one chance to enter, which is done by commenting on the blog of that day (check the main site for the schedule of blogs — this one is December 7, just FYI).

Second, I’d like to invite any author (well, not kid lit or YA, for obvious reasons) who’s holding a giveaway in the month of December to leave me the link in a comment to this post, and I’ll add them here. Then people can come back again and again to find more giveaways. Remember, people, you can’t win stuff if you never enter!

Finally, for anyone who has never won anything — whether you’ve tried or not — if you leave me a comment here, I will email you my new short story ebook, “Good Girl.” No, it’s not a villa in France, but it’s free! Your choice of .pdf, .doc, .mobi, or ePub formats (or anything else you want, if I can figure out how to make it). Everyone’s a winner!

Oh, and the jar of jelly beans?

Yeah, I won it.

*  *  *

List of December Giveaways

• From Kiki Howell, a blog tour with several different chances to win. Find the schedule here.

• From Katie Salidas, a blog tour featuring her paranormal Immortalis series. Different blogs feature reviews, interviews, and guest posts. The schedule for the first week is here:

 

With thanks to Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot, whose portfolio can be found here, for the image of the jelly beans.

*  *  *  *  *

 

 

 

This post comes after a discussion on this topic on google+ some months back. I came a little late to the party, so there was already a long list of comments, and pretty much they all agreed that authors should not review friends’ books (making me instantly wonder, well, should they be reviewing enemies’ books, then?). In fact, one poster even wrote that people reading the reviews could tell whether comments were made by authors or by “real people.”

OK, of course I’m going to bristle at being called an unreal person, but I do get the point being made — it’s the belief that a review being written by a friend is not just going to be positive, but going to be falsely positive. Therefore, since the review is inflated and insincere, it is in some sense dishonest, and does a disservice to potential readers trying to decide whether to purchase a certain book.

I don’t think it’s any secret that I review friends’ books, but just in case someone didn’t know that, I’ll clarify: I certainly have, and will continue to, review friends’ books. It didn’t start out that way, because when I started reviewing erotica, I didn’t know any erotic authors. In fact, some of my erotica author friends are people I met after I reviewed their books. I found things in their writing that spoke to me, so I connected on Facebook or FetLife or wherever, and we started emailing, and became friends. At that point, did my book reviews become invalid? ;) (OK, I know that’s not what the original discussion was implying.)

But let’s take now. I have a few books in my review queue, and some of them were written by friends. Real friends, not just casual email acquaintances, but people I’ve spent time with, who’ve stayed at my house, whom I’ve shared meals with. In fact, one reason I wanted to review their books is because we’re friends, and through that friendship, I’ve come to know their values and beliefs as well as their writing, which lead me to think I’d like their future books.

Of course, no one was saying you shouldn’t read your friends books — only that you shouldn’t review them. But I still disagree. If I read a book, and I like it, I should be allowed to say so, whether I know the author or not. I know that I’ve read things by friends that I didn’t particularly care for, so it’s not true that I’ll like something just because a friend wrote it. That’s assuming I’m a lot more shallow than I am, thank you very much. Nor would my friends want me to write insincere praise. I don’t, for example, enjoy paranormal erotica. My friends who write in that genre aren’t offended by views, but they’re not surprised if I don’t ask for those titles to review.

Can a reader tell, though? If a review is insincere. You know, I’m not sure it matters — because I don’t think the thumbs-up or the thumbs-down is what influences readers anyway. Nor is the glowing praise or the scathing insults. What matters is a) the plot summary, and b) the reasons and descriptions a reviewer gives. If a review doesn’t tell me why the reader liked or didn’t like a certain book, then it doesn’t sway me one way or the other. And if the review does give me reasons, then I sometimes decide I wouldn’t like a book the reader loved, or that I would like a book the reviewer hated. I’ve experienced that in both directions. When The Kite Runner came out, for example, I can’t count how many friends recommended it to me, telling me how well-written it was. So I asked what it was about. Ah… really not my kind of book. (I’d confess here some books that got terrible reviews that I loved anyway, but I’m too shy.)

If you’ve ever read my book review policies on this site, you know I don’t write negative reviews — not because I never dislike anything, but because writing a review is hard work and takes time, and I don’t want to spend that on something I didn’t enjoy. I don’t necessarily even want to finish the book. I also review erotica for Oysters & Chocolate, and there (since I’m paid) I take what I’m given and I give my reaction, whether positive, negative, or a mix. However, even when leaving a negative or mixed review, I’m careful to give my reasons — and a thoughtful reader could read those reasons and still decide that he/she would enjoy the work in question and buy it anyway.

I don’t agree that opinions are like assholes, but I do think that opinions are … oh, no analogy. They’re just opinions! Not to say that an opinion can never be inaccurate (I swear to god, my local video store used to have A Clockwork Orange shelved in the “comedy” section), but if there are enough reviews of a book, one review that’s way off the others is going to stand out.

The reviews I do object to? Those by people who have not read the book (and yes, that happens!) and those that are only a sentence or two and say something like “I hated this book it was dumb” or “This was the best book ever, so you have to buy it.”

However, I don’t think those sway anyone’s behavior.

I’d love to hear from people whether they’ve ever bought or decided not to buy a book based on a review, and if so, what the deciding factors were. I’d also like to know, of course, what people think of authors reviewing the works of people they know. And finally, do you think you’ve ever read a review that was insincerely positive, and if so, how could you tell?

Thanks to dan for permission to use the photo of the rose on the book. Please see his portfolio of images here.

*  *  *  *  *

 

 

Yes! They’re ready! Two hot volumes of erotica, absolutely free. Let’s have an interview with one of the authors in the collection — namely, me.

Q: So… what’s the deal?

A: Sexy Briefs is a series of free collections of erotic short stories. So far, there are two volumes on offer: Knickers in a Twist and Tasty Little Tails. They’re each available completely free of charge at Smashwords (just click on their titles in the sentence before this one). Each book has eight stories in it — not excerpts, not teasers, but complete stories.

Q: And how did this come to pass? Why are the books free? Who are all these people?

A: Please! One question at a time! This was the brainstorm of Tessie L’Amour, whom I met on the social networking site google+. She was talking about, oh, erotica and publishing and stories, and how she’d noticed how many downloads one of her stories got when she offered it for free. “How interesting!” said a number of us fellow erotica writers. And we got to chatting, as one does on these sites, and Tessie came up with the idea of offering a collection of free stories, each story by a different author. The idea was to introduce ourselves to new readers. After all, readers are understandably reluctant to purchase stories or books by authors they don’t know. But how can they know us if they’ve never tried us? And erotica isn’t as likely to show up at garage sales or in the public library. Thus … these collections!

Q: So you don’t know these people at all?

A: Well, it depends on what you mean by “know,” I suppose. Two of the authors I’ve actually met in person, at the Erotica Authors Association conference in Las Vegas last September. Two others I knew by name before this venture, and the others were as new to me as I was to them. That is the great thing about social networking — it’s social, and you network. So I know them now!

Q: Are the books arranged by theme?

A: No, it’s not that kind of anthology. It’s not eight stories of vampires or eight stories of Dominatrixes (Dominatrices?). I’ve actually read both collections, because I volunteered to do the proofreading, and the stories are all very different. There are erotic romance stories and paranormal stories and hetero stories and same-sex stories and science fiction stories — a real mix. The point is for readers to have a variety to choose from. If you find a new author whose style you like, then you can check out the other works that person has on offer.

Q: How were they chosen?

A: Well … we all offered up. There wasn’t a judge anywhere going “No, this isn’t good enough.” Those of us who had the interest and could meet the deadline sent stories in, and when she had enough for two books, Tessie put together two books. Doesn’t get much more democratic than that.

Q: What’s your story about?

A: Mine is called “Good Girl,” and it’s a light bdsm tale about a woman who’s noticed that her lover calls her both “good girl” and “bad girl,” and she gets to wondering … hey, you know what? It’s 2747 words long. Just download it and read it, and then you’ll know.

Q: I notice that the same collection is offered for sale on Amazon. Why is that?

A: Ah, that is because of the Mysterious Ways of Amazon. They will not allow independent authors to list works for free. So … we put a price of $4.99 on it. I can’t see why anyone would pay that, since the books are entirely free at Smashwords, but you never know. If any copies sell, then the money goes first to Tessie to cover her costs (cover images, etc.), and then any extra will be donated to the It Gets Better foundation, as agreed by all of the authors.

Q: Are there going to be any more of these?

A: There well could be. Depends on how successful these are, I suppose, and how much people like them and how much time Tessie has and whether erotica authors on google+ respond to her next call for submissions.

Q: Is there anything else?

A: Well, since you ask — yes, there is. If you download the books, and you have a friend who might enjoy them too, please ask that friend to go to Smashwords and download his/her own copy. Don’t email him/her your copy.

Q: Why? What difference would it make? The books are free!

A: Yes, but the difference is, if the friend downloads from Smashwords, we’ll know that. We’ll see the number of downloads increase, and that gives us a little thrill. Authors get off on getting read! We’re not making cash on this, so we’d love to get our gratification from knowing that people are reading our stories. Authors also love getting comments and feedback. Each author has links to his/her blog site and social media pages, and you can also leave reviews on Smashwords and Amazon. We’d appreciate that!

Q: Well, I’m going to go download those books right now! And then tell all my friends. All my friends who’d be interested, that is. What are those links again?

A: Excellent! Thank you so much! And the links are here: Knickers in a Twist (or here at All Romance E-books, if you prefer — still free!) and Tight Little Tails (and here at All Romance E-books). I hope you enjoy them! Do note that Smashwords would like you to click something saying that you’re OK with seeing adult content. If you’ve never used Smashwords before, you need to sign up — but they won’t need your credit card (because these books are free, in case I forgot to mention that before).

*  *  *  *  *

Whoo hoo! I’m on sale! And now I keep imagining Bruce Springsteen singing

At night I wake up with the sheets soaking wet,

And a freight train running through the middle of my head.

Only ninety-nine cents an ebook;

Oh, oh, oh, I’m on sale…

Oh, oh, oh, I’m on sale.

That’s right, .99 for the Kindle version of Transported, or any of the ebook versions at Smashwords. Or if you’re over on that side, .86 pence at amazon.uk. The sale price is good for the month of November, after which it will return to its regular retail price. (I notice today that the paperback price is also on sale at Amazon, but that’s controlled by Amazon and not my publisher, so there’s not telling how long it’s good for! The electronic sale price is guaranteed throughout November.)

* * * * *

Of course, I am thinking of that Doors song. But erotica author Sommer Marsden is guest-posting here today about love at first sight, and a hot new book (excepted below! Don’t miss it! You know it’s good because she included a special content warning: Warnings: This title contains graphic sex and language, spanking, m/f/m sex, multiple partners. Sounds good to me!). Oh, and werewolves. So it’s even seasonal.

AND…… leave a comment! Because one commenter wins a free book! If you know Sommer’s writing, you know that’s a pretty sweet deal. If you don’t know Sommer’s writing, then scroll down this page and read some.

Take it away, Sommer!

*  *  *

Nice to meet you… I love you

Let’s get this out of the way. More than once (hmph) I have been nailed in the midst of a perfectly lovely review by something that sounds a lot like this:

“The only problem I had with this book was the fact that they fell in love so fast.”

Hmph (again).

See, the old adage is “write what you know.” I know that. Falling in love in fast forward mode.

Not once, not twice, but thrice have I fallen hard and very, very fast. Maybe not at first sight but within a few days. And not once, not twice, but thrice those relationships have lasted more than a year. One was six years, one was one year and the most recent…Well, we’re on about sixteen years and counting.

I know, I know! Not everyone has experienced this, and for that I am sad, but some of us have. And not just a single time. So, I often write fast-fast love if you want to call it that. Actually, don’t call it that because it sounds as if my guys have premature ejaculation issues.

I write fast falling. Characters who have a bang-zing-wow! connection and then take the plunge and build on it—cultivating something long term and intense. It happened in most of the novellas in Hard Lessons, it happened in Learning to Drown, it happened in Base Nature. It happens to my characters because it’s happened to me. And just for the record, it’s happened to quite a few friends of mine. Mayhap even the owner of this here blog…

But on to the point—I have, as my favorite nun teacher from days of yore, Sister Mary, used to say: “Gone off on a tangent!”

Ironically, my little blog hopping extravaganza—or my current reign of werewolf terror as I’ve come to think of it—involves a vampire, human, werewolf love triangle. And my readers will see (Shock! Horror! Dismay!) that my heroine Ruby does NOT fall in love really fast. I mean, the sexual attraction is there for her friend Tyler (resident vamp) but she’s managed to keep him at arm’s length, knowing she’ll never love him the way he loves her. And she’s dancing around her feelings and irrational attraction to Ellis Bach (werewolf extraordinaire) because it’s just so absurd.

So then, said werewolf, announces at some point that she’s his long lost, dead lover reincarnated. But she still doesn’t rush and keeps her cool—well, as much cool as one can keep given the scenario. Until keeping her cool just can’t happen anymore. And then the connection is fast and fierce and unbreakable. Again.

So, I have broken out of my mold, haven’t I? Don’t laugh. I haven’t done this before. I mean, it’s one thing to fall in love fast, it’s another thing to fall in love again. With someone you loved in another lifetime. And are about to have a second chance with. Now there’s something I can say I haven’t done. At least so far…

Tell me about your love at first sight. Tell me about how it took you forever to fall in love. Tell me if it’s ever happened to you or you wish it would. Whatever it is, just tell me! And I have a copy of Big Bad to give away to one lucky confessor.

XOXO

Sommer

*  *  *

Blurb for BIG BAD by Sommer Marsden

Lust according to Ruby:

You read those books where they explain it all away. They make it fine with rationalization. But what if I just want to? What if that’s my whole reason? My life is not a romance novel. I don’t need justification. I’m a grown woman who knows what she wants.

I want Ellis. And I want Tyler.

And I won’t apologize…

What’s worse than wanting both your best friend who’s a vampire and the just-back-in-town alpha werewolf you find yourself fixated on? Finding out that the werewolf in question wants you, too. But he isn’t too keen on the sharing part. Oh, and by the way, you’re his dead mate.

Okay, okay, dead is harsh—reincarnated.

What’s worse than that? Realizing that you believe the whole crazy tale of reincarnation. Because it seems to be true.

And yet you still want them both—together. Vampire and werewolf and you in the middle. Stuck between two predators who want you and only you. To complicate it all, you find out that you can have it. With your new/old mate’s blessing. But just one time before he claims you as his.

Are you brave enough to take it? That one shot?

Well… Are you?

*  *  *

Warnings: This title contains graphic sex and language, spanking, m/f/m sex, multiple partners.

Buy Link for BIG BAD (also at ARe, Bookstrand, Kindle etc.):

http://www.excessica.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=463

Excerpt for BIG BAD by Sommer Marsden:

*  *  *

“Where is he?” I sat perched across from him, remembering my new and sudden nickname, Little Bird. I wasn’t so little. I was pretty tall and pretty curvy and had muscles in my calves that runners envied, but to Ellis I was a little bird and in comparison to him, I felt like one.

“He who?” His eyes were mostly unreadable but with a wariness about them.

“Frank. The man who—“

“I know who Frank is.”

“Where is he? You were gone and now you’re back and he is…?”

He shrugged. “No idea.”

I put my hand on his and that made him look up. “Come on. I have a really hard time believing that you—on the ball alpha that you seem to be—is completely unaware of where an enemy is. It doesn’t ring true.”

“He’s around. But I don’t want vengeance.”

He was lying. I said nothing.

“I think that that kind of violence draws attention to us, and not in a good way. It draws attention to humans when they kill for vengeance or sport. It would be ten times worse—it is ten times worse—for supernaturals when that happens. Because we are committing violence intentionally and drawing attention to our kind from those who fear us irrationally.”

“Well, you guys are a bit intense,” I laughed. “I mean, you could snap me like a twig. Wolf out on me, make me a meal.”

He grinned and my nether regions tingled along with my belly and my nipples. He was magical and dirty, Ellis Bach was.

“Tyler could drain me dry and leave me for dead, if he chose to.”

“True.” He put all his dishes in a neat stack. His plate was so cleaned of food it looked to be fresh out of the cabinet. “And the next normal human guy you went out on a date with could rape you and beat you and leave you for dead.”

I blinked.

“Or he could be a serial killer. A thief, a murderer or a sexual predator. Evil comes in all forms, Ruby. Human and supernatural.”

“I know.”

The realization that he was so right—so eerily accurate—and that we hardly ever looked at it that way, us humans, silenced me for a moment. He watched me. Not touching me, not talking, barely moving. It was like being stalked as prey but in a forward way—without pretense or secrecy.

“Why, if I’m your reincarnated mate and you can sense it on me or smell it or whatever…why did you wait so long to come get me?”

He traced that scar on the counter with the tip of his fingernail. It made a secret whispery sound. “I didn’t smell it or sense it or whatever until I smelled you…”

He looked tentative. What was he about to say that Mr. Say-It-Like-It-Is was hesitating?

“Smelled me what?” I demanded, tapping my foot because it somehow made me feel courageous.

“After you’d had sex.”

I blinked again. It was apparently my night to do my best impression of a dumb doll. “What?”

“Until after you and Tyler fucked,” he said matter-of-factly. “I could clearly smell the scent of my mate even from the road after you’d been together.”

“Oh fabulous.”

“Don’t get upset.”

“I can be smelled from the street,” I hissed at him, clutching my kimono tight around my middle.

“By a werewolf,” he laughed. “It’s not like the mailman smelled you. That would be bad. This was good. I knocked and demanded Tyler let me in as soon as I caught a whiff of you.”

He leaned across the counter, pinned me with that stare.

“I’m sure he loved that,” I said and swallowed hard. My throat clicked.

“Oh, yeah. He’s now my number one fan.”

Ellis reached across the counter and I watched his hand as if expecting a magic trick. Instead, his fingers caressed the broad trim that edged my kimono. The fabric sighed under his touch and he stroked the shiny material from my shoulder to the place where it crossed over itself to shield my body. The backs of his fingers brushed my bare skin a few times and every time his skin touched mine it was like being shocked. A small electrical impulse packed with nerves and want and excitement zipped along my skin, ran under the surface and mingled with flesh and bone.

I let out a breath that sounded like I was deflating and he leaned in, inhaled my little bit of air and kissed me. I leaned into the kiss, relishing the hot press of his mouth to mine, the wet stroke of his tongue along the tip of my own. His hand slid along my skin, raising up an army of shivery goose bumps as it moved. He stroked over my skin, along my clavicle, up my neck. I waited, praying for him to touch me. Pinch my nipple, stroke my breast, but instead he cupped the back of my head with his big hand and tugged me in to meet his mouth. Ellis tipped my head back and deepened the kiss until I was pressing my hands to the countertop to hold myself up. This man, this creature, made me weak in the knees.

He pulled back and studied my eyes. I touched the stubble at his chin, hearing it rasp under my fingers. “You didn’t touch me,” I said.

“You’re not ready.”

“I am.” I was lying.

“No you’re not. You’re scared. Had I come in and simply said I’m here to fulfill your fantasy. I’ll fuck you little red Ruby-hood you’d be fine. But you’re my mate. My dead mate. Reincarnated. I can smell it on you. And you believe me, Ruby,” he said. His fingers pushed to the bow of my mouth and he pressed his finger down until I had two options—resist him or open my mouth and let him push his warm finger past my lips. I opened my mouth, just a bit, just enough to let him thrust his finger slowly over my tongue.

I went wet and fluid. I wanted him. I almost asked. But under it all, under all the lust, was the fear he was explaining to me. My own fear.

“I’m…”

He smiled at me—it wasn’t his cheeky cocky grin—it was a genuine smile and my heart flexed at seeing it. He pulled his finger free of my mouth, leaned in again and kissed me once more. “Time for me to go.”

“I…but…”

“I’ll call you. Or raid the store for sausage. Maybe I can take you to dinner?”

“Me?”

Ellis let his head fall back and he ran his hands through that tangle of thick honey hair. He groaned and the sound made me laugh softly. I was frustrating him. “Dear God, woman. Yes, you.”

“Let me ask you something.”

I could feel cool air on my chest and knew the robe had gaped some. My breasts were not exposed but the curve of them was and Ellis’s eyes strayed there and stayed there. It made me feel sexy and powerful and wanted. I let the robe stay.

“Go for it.” He rested his forearms on the lip of the counter and waited.

“If I weren’t her. If you didn’t think I was her—“ I had to say that for my own sanity. I didn’t know if I was ready to believe I was his dead love Susan. “Would you still want me?”

He looked surprised at that. His mouth went soft and round and if he’d been any less in control of himself, I think he’d have made a sound of surprise. But he pushed his mouth back down into a line and said. “What a fucking asshole I am.”

*  *  *

Whew!

I hope you haven’t forgotten the question way back up there at the top, when we started this whole thing. Do you believe in love at first sight? Have you felt it? Do you believe in a more measured pace? Something in between? Both? Comment below for a chance to win a free copy of Big Bad. But even if you don’t win one, you can easily get your own right here, in print or as an e-book. No trick, just a treat. ;)

*  *  *  *  *

 

 

One of the nicest things for me about attending the Erotic Authors Association conference in Las Vegas this past September was meeting erotica author K.D. Grace. Great person, and a great author! And she has a new novel out. You can check it out here by reading an excerpt from it.

There is a proper order to these things, and it goes like this: blurb (overview of the book), excerpt (preferably hot),  then links to the book if you are interested in buying it, and finally a biography, a bit more about the author. I can’t see any reason to deviate from that order, so here we go. (Note that Xcite is a publisher from the UK; thus the British English punctuation, which I didn’t fuss with!)

Blurb:

An erotic novel by best-selling author K D Grace.

In appreciation for a job well done, STELLA JAMES ‘s boss sends her a pet – a human pet. The mischievous TINO comes straight from THE PET SHOP complete with a collar, a leash, and an erection. Stella soon discovers the pleasure of keeping Pets, especially this one, is extremely addicting.

Obsessed with Tino and with the reclusive philanthropist, VINCENT EVANSTON, who looks like Tino, but couldn’t be more different, Stella is drawn into the secret world of The Pet Shop. As her animal lust awakens, Stella must walk the thin line that separates the business of pleasure from the more dangerous business of the heart or suffer the consequences.

And then the fun part, the excerpt!

*  *  *

“YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS,” O’Kelly said, nearly dropping the phone. “You can’t really mean to give Stella James Tino for the whole weekend. Wouldn’t a nice gift voucher from Selfridges be more appropriate?”

The Boss offered her a tolerant chuckle on the other end of the phone. “Didn’t she tell you she thought an occasional shag wasn’t too much to ask for doing such a demanding job?”

“Yes, but she was joking. I’m sure she never expected–”

“Well, she’s right. It isn’t too much to ask, is it? She’s a very dedicated employee, and we’ve always done our best to reward dedicated employees, especially one with such promise, one that we have such plans for.”

“Yes but–”

“Hasn’t she met and surpassed our expectations since she’s joined Strigida, and didn’t we both agree she’s exactly what we’re looking for?”

“Yes, but–”

“She’s not in a relationship, right?”

She rolled her eyes and glanced down at her watch. He was on a roll. Nothing for it now but to hear him out.

“No relationship, no family. Stella can afford to live in London because she has no life outside of work, all factors we took into account when we hired her. There’s no arguing she doesn’t have time for sex.” He paused long enough for a quick breath. “Sorry to say that’s the way of the world these days. All work and no play. Very sad. Very sad indeed.”

“Yes, sir. It is sad, but, sir, Tino?”

“Yes. Tino.”

“OK, maybe for a couple of hours, maybe. But surely not for the whole weekend.”

“Yes, for the whole weekend, O’Kelly, from Friday night till Sunday evening. Every last second of it.”

O’Kelly rubbed her forehead impatiently then rolled her shoulders to loosen the knots, which she could always count on the Boss to tighten. “It’s not that the woman doesn’t deserve a weekend of blow-your-brains-out sex. God knows she does, but …”

“But what, O’Kelly? Get to the point.”

O’Kelly squirmed uncomfortably in her seat. She found the whole thing a bit embarrassing, actually. “Well, sir, she’s just so …”

“So what?”

“She’s just so tight laced, so prim and proper. I don’t know – all business. I can’t help but wonder if we’ve made a mistake, and even if we haven’t, a weekend with Tino is just so hardcore at this stage, don’t you think?” She straightened in her chair and brushed her skirt free of the few remaining crumbs from the sandwich she had wolfed for lunch. “I can’t picture her being the kind who could appreciate or even be able to handle a weekend with Tino.”

“Prim and proper? Really? You just told me she was joking about the company providing sex as a fringe benefit for its overworked employees. Doesn’t sound very prim and proper to me. In fact she sounds like exactly the woman we’ve been looking for.”

 *  *  *

Like it? Want more? It’s here!

Buy links

Paperback:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Pet-Shop-Grace/9781908006790/?a_aid=creativewriter1985 (note that Book Depository doesn’t charge anything for shipping, no matter where in the world you live)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/190800679X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=190800679X

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190800679X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=190800679X

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/k-+d-+grace/the+pet+shop/8396849/

eBook:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004Z9A5Q6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B004Z9A5Q6

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Z9A5Q6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=lucyfelt-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B004Z9A5Q6

http://www.erotica-romance-ebooks.com/the-pet-shop.html

And in case you were wondering just who this woman is, here is her bio:

K D Grace was born with a writing obsession. It got worse once she actually learned HOW to write. There’s no treatment for it. It’s progressive and chronic and quite often interferes with normal, everyday functioning. She might actually be concerned if it wasn’t so damned much fun most of the time.

K D’s erotic romance novels, The Initiation of Ms Holly and The Pet Shop, both published by Xcite Books, are available from all good paperback and eBook retailers.

Her erotica has been published with Xcite Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Black Lace, Erotic Review, Ravenous Romance, Sweetmeats Press and Scarlet Magazine.

Find out more about K D Grace on her website, http://kdgrace.co.uk. She’s also on Facebook and Twitter.

*  *  *  *  *

I’m over at K.D. Grace’s blog today, as part of her series on “The Story behind the Story,” talking about my short story “Flaws,” and what inspired me to write it.

Come join us!

*  *  *  *  *