You Have To Play To Win

I’m clearly not a risk taker. I’ll just say that in case my years and years of publishing short stories and not full length works, waiting over a decade to even attempt editing a collection myself and starting and stopping umpteen novels weren’t enough of a clue.

I touch on the topic from time to time. Okay, I talk about it a lot, so much so that I start getting on my own nerves which only leads to more frustration.

But, with the publishing world being as finicky as it has been lately, and my not having a steady 9 to 5 in over a year, I’ve been tossing around ideas on how I can make things happen for myself, be it revising my NaNo novel, doing a kick starter for another anthology, or putting out a few volumes of my own previously published shorts.

Those things sound easy enough. And they probably are easy enough. But then the fear kicks in. A writer friend asked this morning what exactly the fear was and I told her…”fear of the end.” Sure, success might be there waiting, and so could failure but I’d never know which one it is if I never get there. I guess this is my crazy little safe zone.

The thing about my safe zone, though, is that I’m not doing what I love. I’m not going where my heart leads me. And I’m not  making any real attempt at achieving any major goal I’ve ever set for myself. So, while I’m safe from hurt and disappointment and failure, I’m also hiding from what really could be an awesome future for me and my work.

I’ve been getting signs lately. Not only had I been considering moving forward with these ideas myself, a dear writer friend tossed them out to me as well. Then this morning I had a phone conversation with my BFF and self proclaimed biggest fan, and she invited me to set up a booth at a local Women’s Expo. I had been approached by someone else about this recently and my excuse, of course, was that I didn’t have anything to offer. Sure, there’s Can’t Get Enough, but otherwise, what had I done lately? What comes next?

So, she also brought up the possibility of me putting together some collections. And I mean, self publishing now a days is too damn easy not to. I have just shy of a month to do this, and I’ve decided that I will. I mean, you can’t get mad that someone else won the lottery if you never even buy a ticket…right?

Renee Swindle’s “Shake Down The Stars” – A Review

Not so recently, I was the lucky winner of the latest novel of Renee Swindle, A Pinch of Ooh La La. I was happily surprised by this win as I had tried for it on a whim and had just finished Ms. Swindle’s second novel, Shake Down The Stars. For years and years I waited for another Renee Swindle book as I loved  her first, Please Please Please so very much.

Now, before I begin this review I must tell you that I’m forgetful. Let’s just…put that out there. I say and do things on the fly. I hoard notebooks. I write myself notes on an app on my phone. It’s how I live. I’m saying all that to say that I immediately wrote a review for Shake Down The Stars which I fully intended to post here and upload to Amazon. Who knows how that went awry, but in one of my cleaning frenzies yesterday, I uncovered the abandoned review, and well, better late than never…right?

In this ultimate comeback novel, the main character Piper won me over from page one. You see, hooking and reeling me in the beginning is important as I have the attention span of a… wait… what was I saying?

Oh, right. Piper. What a mess! But quite frankly, I need for my characters to be a bit of a mess, so I know they’re real. Fortunately, Renee Swindle shared my sentiment in this brilliantly crafted and tightly written novel where she presents readers with a character who immediately resonates. Be it Piper’s alcoholism, (whether she acknowledges it or not), family turmoil or unimaginable loss, there is a little part of this character we can all relate to.

It is all these parts of Piper that made me ask the question over and over: Who will love you at your worst?

Though Piper isn’t overtly in search or love, or any one thing in particular, it’s a question she seems to want the answer to herself. While dealing with the unthinkable in the only way she knows how, drinking until she can no longer think nor feel, engaging in reckless and promiscuous behavior and clinging to an unhealthy back and forth relationship with her ex husband, Piper often looks for answers in the stars. Star gazing is a passion of hers, and after hitting rock bottom, the stars, it seems, are all she can hold on to.

It takes the chance meeting of a perfect stranger to bring Piper’s starry gaze into focus and force her to confront her demons and, once and for all, decide who she really is, and if the real Piper is worth loving at all.

Since her breakout novel Please Please Please, I’ve found Renee Swindle to be synonymous with creating shockingly real and relatable characters and terribly realistic stories. Her much anticipated follow up proves consistent in presenting readers with a complex and flawed character that we have all at one point either known, seen or been. 

Filled with detailed descriptions, familiar settings and sharp, snappy dialogue, Shake Down The Stars is an engaging and compelling read that I highly recommend.

Now…on to A Pinch of Ooh La La!
 

So you edited your first anthology…now what?

I have a problem. No, a habit, of letting things define me. It’s never intentional, but it happens. Years ago, I was published for the first time in two major anthologies simultaneously. All of a sudden I was the girl who wrote erotica. I proudly took this on as my little niche in writing, a place where I could make a name and hopefully, someday, maybe…a living.

I published plenty. I crossed off a lot of goals on my “to be published by” list. And then I had the opportunity to achieve a major goal of mine: editing my first anthology.

As you know, it came to be Can’t Get Enough and it was a whirlwind experience.

Of course, the book wasn’t even out yet before ideas for more and more anthologies were taking over. I jotted them down. I eventually wrote them up. I decided that if this book did well, this was my chance. I could establish something. This would be my first in a heaping pile of anthologies edited by yours truly.

*Insert belly laughs here*

Though I’ve come across many wonderful people in this community of ours, several of whom turned out to be great mentors of mine, there was never anyone I really spoke to about how this really works. That nothing happens as quickly as you want it to, or does as ridiculously well as you’d dreamed it would and that, well, you do more watching and waiting than anything for a really long time.Suffice it to say, I don’t have any new calls for submissions to list and be excited about, and honestly, I don’t know if I ever will again. I know that’s the opposite of positive thinking, but I have to be real with myself if no one else.

And yes, I drafted a novel in the meanwhile and have started countless other projects. But, what have I done to really push myself forward? To really capitalize from the momentum of Can’t Get Enough’s release?

Editing the project while working a full-time job, moving to another state and caring for twins was enough in and of itself. To keep writing and submitting short stories at the same time sounded crazy.

But, that was where it all began. That was what I was known for. And apparently, I must have taken heed at some point (in my sleep maybe) because I received word a little while back that the amazing Alison Tyler will be publishing three of my shorts in two of her upcoming anthologies.

In Bondage Bites (due out in August), I have Minute to Minute and Anything But Loose, and in Hard At Work (release date TBA), I have A Hard Sell.

 

The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica: One Delighted Reader’s Review

I have a special and specific love for libraries. I always have. Maybe it was because I grew up in a town where the only book store we had sold how-to manuals and office supplies, and the only chance I had at getting my hands on the newest piece of fiction was to travel three towns over and buy it from the mall or, at my age with no money and no car, visit my local library.

Now, well into adulthood, I spend most of my time surrounded by books. I am always, at some point or another, reading one, reviewing one, adding one to my already overflowing collection, and never, not once, has anyone ever heard me complain about it.

To say that I’m a bookworm would be of course, cliché, but I urge you pick up your dictionary, flip the page to bookworm and look at the definition. Then, yes, there slightly to the right, see that picture? Why yes, that is me with my black framed spectacles holding my current book of choice.

In fact, in the case of my untimely demise I have just one request, I’d like to die the way I live, buried in books, and if I must be specific, make them sexy books, and I have to be more specific than that, bury me right there smack dab in the middle of Rose Caraway’s The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica, which I happened to have had the pleasure of being snuggled up with for the better part of the week.

For me, the bigger the book, the better, so this book appealed to me before I even turned back the cover. The twenty-two stories are not only perfectly lengthy and equally meaty, but are preceded by Bix Warden’s clever foreward and Ms. Caraway’s own spot on introduction.

Bookended with stories by well known sex writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and the Ms. Caraway herself, this anthology offers up shelf after shelf of goodness, so much so that as I was reading, highlighting and taking notes (because I do that) I realized that it would be difficult to point out my favorites.

While I enjoyed them all, yes, every last one, I was particularly fond of Bussel’s Book Swap, where book lover Brianna swaps books mid flight with a her seatmate, who happens to be a sexy young Dom. Embarrassed at first by his discovery of her choice of reading, she is pleasantly surprised at what fantasies, pleasure and punishments he has in store for her upon landing.

The story immediately following, Lillian Douglas’s Sensate Silicone, appealed to the gadget geek in me. A self proclaimed porn star and sexpert who not only enjoys but endorses dildos, is introduced to the ultimate sex toy, and she pleasures herself in a way she never imagined she could.

Fans of mythology will enjoy Janine Ashbless’s Three Legs In The Morning, a smart, incredibly well told fairy tale type story that highlights bits of voyeurism, mystery and intrigue.

But oh, the cherry on my southern ice cream sundae was Salome Wilde’s Moonshine Ballad. Lyrical and literary, this story was as satisfying as apple pie, and as fulfilling as forty-five minutes on the dirt floor of your grandfather’s barn.

I can never turn a blind eye to exhibitionism, so Full-Frontal Neighbor by Lynn Townsend tickled my fancy as well and if you’re hungry for oral, hotel sex and a wee bit of cuckolding, then by all means, follow the arrows to Sommer Marsden’s Appetizer where Jamie indulges his wife’s fantasy as a surprise, letting the eager Oliver whet her appetite before he took over to fill her up.

As I mentioned, I’m a story whore, and in this collection I could absolutely dote on every one, but I always prefer show over tell. So, by all means let me show you the way to Rose Caraway’s The Sexy Librarian’s Big Book of Erotica, and you thumb through the pages and bookmark some favorites of your own.

“It was hotter than an oven on broil…”

 What’s hotter than an oven on broil you might ask? Well, not only a particularly warm day in October in a rural, southern town, but the resulting hot sex on the bed of a pick-up truck of course!

In my contribution to the scorching anthology Summer Loving edited by the lovely and talented Alison Tyler, a little tale titled An Oven On Broil, heat is the theme in more ways than one.

The main character, Louise, is already at home pissed that her husband hasn’t gotten her car fixed, then when the air conditioning in the house goes out, putting the icing on the cake, she’s really steamed.

In fact, she’s heated enough to walk in the heat to confront her husband, but he finds a way to cool her down, while at the same time, cranking up the heat.

This story came easily to me and flowed almost flawlessly since heat, to me, is synonymous with sex. I love the sweaty stickiness of getting it on in high temperatures, be it on the hot sand of a beach or on the deck of your house on the hottest day of the year.

 This particular excerpt should get you all hot and steamy yourself, wherever you are…

             Louise didn’t care that there were no sheets or blankets there. She just wanted him inside her. She was willing to risk a few minutes of discomfort for some spontaneous fucking in the middle of a hot day.

            Doug guided Louise to the back of the truck and eased her on her back. Her dress was rolled up to her breasts now and the hot ridges of the truck bed stung her skin.

            She flinched.

            Doug paused.

            “Too hot?”

            Louise shook her head and pulled Doug closer.

            “No, keep going.”

            Doug worked his way out of his shorts, exposing a lengthy and solid cocoa cock that he placed directly between her legs as he lowered himself inside her.

            It was like someone stuck a fork in her. Louise wouldn’t last a minute, not if Doug kept on like this.

            His moves were fluid. His humming in her ear didn’t help matters. She was turned on high, and she couldn’t help it. She was going to boil over…

             For more of my story along with nineteen other scorchers from erotica’s top talents, nab your copy of Summer Loving today!

Easy like…

…feel free to take it from there, but let me tell you, nothing about this Sunday is easy, not for me anyway. I knew it had been a few days since I updated here, but a whole week?! Wow, I had no idea. And in the meantime, so many readers, blogger and reviewers were happily participating in the Can’t Get Enough blog tour, including the Trollop With A Laptop herself, Alison Tyler, who posted this colorful interview with me on her blog yesterday, while I was busy shuttling the twin to the sitter, driving to a book signing…

…signing one (tee hee) book and driving back, picking up twins, picking up dinner then coming home where it began storming and the power went out.

And that was just yesterday. Today I planned to stay in bed all day and rest because I was bold, no foolish enough to wear heels yesterday, and apparently I must atone for that today. However, instead of resting and recovering peacefully, I’m having to deal with the difficult tenant I’ve been avoiding mentioning to much over the past year (because I’m such a fucking lady) because after avoiding being served with a notice of eviction, she finally got served, then tells me that she needs more than ten days. Not because she doesn’t have anywhere to go, mind you, but because she doesn’t feel like moving her stuff.

Really, she doesn’t feel like it? Well, you know what I don’t feel like? Paying mortgage on a home that I’m not living in and not being reimbursed for it and having it torn all to hell to boot. So, yeah, that’s going on right now, but I’m trying to put my energy elsewhere.

Like this creative spurt I’m going through right now. While the power was out yesterday evening, I entertained my husband by reading him the beginnings of some things I’m working on. One story is a comedy in addition to being erotic, and the first paragraph made him laugh out loud. That was cool.

But speaking of Alison Tyler, one of several things I did on Friday (indcluding having tires changed, ugh!) was visit the Atlanta bookstore Charis Books where I spotted her Dark Secret Love on display on the shelf. I couldn’t resist snapping this picture and tweeting and tagging her.

She wrote about it on her blog today.

I know this is a super long post, but I had a lot of catching up to do. I haven’t even mentioned that Rose Caraway announced the winners of her give away on Friday! And she did it in such a unique and clever way!

Thanks, Rose, thank everyone, and thanks if you made it through this post!

Ali’s Addiction, Alison’s Wrap-Up and Acworth, GA

I got an early start this morning (read-I didn’t go back to sleep after the hubs went to work). I stayed up and finished answering some interview questions for something so exciting that I wish I could tell you all about, but I can’t yet, and sent them in. Speaking of which, the three hour time difference between my publishers and I really works in my favor. I have emails for them three or four hours before they’re scheduled to be at work, so it makes me feel super productive and shit.

Moving right along, today’s stop on the Can’t Get Enough blog tour is at Ali’s Addiction. She excerpts from Beatrix Ellroy’s Before They Burn, a delightful (and hot) little baking story, and she gives you the opportunity to win a copy of my book. Now, why wouldn’t you stop on by?

Also happening is my second Books-A-Million signing, this time in Acworth, GA. So, if you’re in or around the area tomorrow afternoon, I would love it if you would come to:

Books-A-Million #106
3372 North Cobb Parkway
Acworth, GA 30101
2-4 p.m.

Yesterday, Alison Tyler included my in her Wrap-Up blog, where she mentioned the recent release of Summer Loving (an anthology created specifically for and all proceeds going to the wonderful Sommer Marsden and her family) in which my story, An Oven On Broil is included.

She also spoke about Open, the book on which my name first appeared on a cover! Thanks much, Alison!

Busy, busy today. More interview questions to answer and blog posts to write, but if I’m at the keyboard, that’s the best kind of busy of all!

The Story That Made Everyone L.O.L.

Here I am again, playing catch up. Always a day behind. Forgetting something or someone. But, here I am at the writing table, wrapping up guest blogs, an article and an exciting questionnaire that I hope to be able to share details about really soon.

Yesterday’s stop on the Can’t Get Enough blog tour (see, how I so casually stopped counting the days? That’s because I’ve lost count!) was at Tamsin Flowers’ place where she posted a steaming hot excerpt from her contribution to the book, Those Damned Cobbles.

I’m so glad Tamsin chose to excerpt her story, because as I may have mentioned, hers was one of the stories that I read from at Charis Books in Atlanta last Thursday, and there were two women in the audience that whispered how much they could relate, and let me tell you, the last two sentences of her story provoked a huge LOL and a confession from one or two women in the crowd about bike riding.

Read her lovely summary of the collection and her hot excerpt here.

Today’s scheduled stop is at Rose Caraway’s place and I’ll be sure to edit this post with links as soon as it goes live.

Also, I joined Facebook again.

I’ll just give you a minute to let that sink in.

Meet me tonight…

Is the invitation as sexy as it sounds? Why, yes, yes it is. Tonight’s reading, my very first reading ever after writing and publishing erotica for over ten years, is at Charis Books in Atlanta, Georgia. If you live in the area, just passing through, want to take an impromptu flight out or whatever, the reading is from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The address is:

1189 Euclid Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30307

I waited until, oh, about three a.m. to get nervous about it. Sat straight up in the bed like I was late for something. But, every one in the house was sleeping soundly, and because I’m so polite I was very quiet with my freak out.

And to add to it, I checked my Twitter feed (because everyone does at 3 a.m.) and saw that Rubicon Reader (my absolute favorite reviewer and Jeep lover) had congratulated me on a literary award nomination. Now, I tend to question not only my sight, but my sanity at 3 in the morning so it took a minute for it to register. Then I followed the link and saw this.

To say that I’m not only surprised, but extremely honored doesn’t even begin to describe this feeling. However this happened, I am grateful, and thank you.

I also thank you all for every review, retweet and favorite when it comes to my incessant tweeting and talking about Can’t Get Enough.

Love you guys, but must go and vomit now.

Announcing Me, Kink Your Kindle Today and more Blog Tour!

First of all, this:

It was just a little old mention in the literary events section (of the Atlanta Journal Constitution er hm), but I was in company with Reshonda Tate Billingsley and others! It felt good.

Also, today Can’t Get Enough is available for download on Kindle. Violet Blue already suggested you Kink Your Kindle with it, and who am I to argue with that?

Speaking of Blue, Day 7 of the Can’t Get Enough blog tour (I think I’m starting to say this phrase in my sleep) brings us over to Karen Blue’s place where she wrote an outstanding and very flattering review of the anthology.

What are you waiting for, get on over there and enjoy!