Happy Bank Holiday!

I understand those of you in the UK have a long weekend coming up. Yay! And look at this: Xcite Books is offering UK-mainland residents a special deal on their £7.99 paperbacks: through midnight on 3 May, they're only £5, with free p&p. This includes, for example, Rock My Socks Off. ; )

School of Ménagement

It looks like Coming Together: As One is be-coming available now! Here's the official blurb:

Coming Together: As One is a multi-author anthology of erotic fiction and poetry with a ménage theme, edited by Alessia Brio and with an introduction by the one and only Samantha Kane, mistress of ménage. ALL proceeds from the sale of this volume will benefit ONE, the campaign to end global poverty.

Click through for table of contents and purchase options.

'I've always thought it would be very sexy to be played like an instrument ...

'I mean, really like an instrument.'

So says Normandie to her lover in Rock My Socks Off, in what I can only describe as the "play me like a violin" episode.

This adventure has been excerpted (with an illustration added!) in the current issue of Erotic Knave magazine, which a kind UK friend tells me has been spotted in the wild. There's even a special offer attached, which allows you to get an Xcite erotic-story antho for free when you purchase my novel!

Twitter Sex at In the Flesh: LA!

This Thursday, April 22, is "How To Keep Your Sex Life Rockin'" night at In the Flesh: LA. The always rockin' Stan Kent, host of ITF:LA, has this to say:

One person's vanilla can be another person's kinky and vice-versa. This Thursday at 8pm at Hustler Hollywood I'm going to be posing that "what is kinky" question to two of the world's foremost sex and relationship experts, Dr. Natasha and Anna David, and you can get valuable face time with them to ask whatever you like, about whatever you like, and don't worry they talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk. Dr. Natasha and Anna are not theoreticians; they most definitely practice what they preach, as you can see in Dr. Natasha's latest book, "A Little Bit Kinky - A Couple's Guide to Rediscovering The Thrill of Sex" ....

In addition to Dr. Natasha and Anna David, we'll have a Twitter Sex novel, Pod 9, written especially for the evening by Kathleen Bradean, Jeremy Edwards, D.L. King, Stan Kent and Ivy Powers. Our live music soundtrack for the evening will be provided by the amazing Julian Shah-Tayler whose kinky dance tunes include “WETTER” with lyrics like “Your body is the reason that I came, the wetter the better, I want you I want you.”

As you would expect, we had a quasiorgasmic blast tweeting erotica!

I hope any of you who are in the LA area will join the party on Thursday with Stan and the gang. (Wish I could be there!) By the way, I've had the honor of appearing with Anna David twice at the NYC In the Flesh, and so I'm speaking as a "primary source" when I tell you how riveting and entertaining a public speaker she is.

Hustler Hollywood, 8920 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood. "Free Parking In The Rear Behind The Store For The Duration Of This Adults Only Event."

Alphabet erotica Examined

Modern Love Examiner Tinamarie Bernard has recently been featuring our beloved Alison Tyler and her alphabetically inclined erotic genius! You'll find the latest installment, "O is for the 'Big-O'," here. Then hit the "view all" link to catch up on any bits of Alison you haven't seen yet.

Guess what article of clothing is my favorite to write about.

This is a Wordle image generated from some of the words in the titles—the titles, mind you!—of my stories. As always with Wordle (at least on the default settings), large type = high frequency.

Xcite offer

A new offer from Xcite Books!

"Review one of our titles on Amazon/iTunes/similar & email the link to [address below] to enter a prize draw for a book of your choice!"

"Closing date is end of April - may become a permanent fixture if it's successful!"

Address for submitting review links:

comps AT xcitebooks DOT com

HTML, EPUB, Adobe Acrobat

Those are the formats in which Rock My Socks Off is available through All Romance eBooks! [I just discovered my book's page there. : )]

Sommer says ...

... that she is offering "three copies each of Dirtyville and Kinkyville as a giveaway." I thought that would get your attention! Let's hear what else she has to say:

What's the catch? The requesters have to a) email me at hot4sommer at yahoo dot com and tell me which they would like ( or both) b) be willing to review us on Amazon if they like the book and c) be able to accept or read pdf or html format... I'll give out three of each volume, first come, first serve.

Weekend Fun

• Dirtyville and Kinkyville are now a blog!
• Xcite is offering another free e-book!
• Xcite is also giving away feather ticklers with minimum print-book purchase!

Or perhaps you'd like to get Dirty(ville) and Kinky(ville) all at once!

If so, go here!

Five Ways to Get Dirty—and Kinky!

Now you can get Dirty(ville) five ways from (checks calendar) Thursday!

Then you can get Kinky(ville) five ways from (checks calendar; notices that day hasn't changed) ... Thursday!

Guest Blog: M. Christian!

When I was first becoming familiar with the landscape of the contemporary erotica scene, I quickly learned that one of the preeminent masters of the genre was an intriguing writer and editor called M. Christian. And it was obvious why M.C. had such a status: his work was not only extraordinary in quality and originality, but also in its versatility. This was clearly a writer who went beyond the familiar challenges of writing convincingly from different genders and orientations and psychologies and walks of life, in different settings, subgenres, moods, and tones; this was a writer who seemed to take all this one step further, to thoroughly reinvent himself, as a voice, every time he picked up the pen—and with glorious results. I'm sure I'm not the first to use the word "chameleon" in describing the man's genius: yes, M. Christian is a rock star of a chameleon.

Nothing about that has changed since I first became acquainted with M.C.'s work. After all, masters of a craft, as a rule, only become more masterful as time goes forward. Here are just three tastes of what this master has been up to lately:

Coming Together Presents M. Christian

Rude Mechanicals

Licks and Promises

But literary brilliance in an incredible range of voices is just part of what M. Christian is about. I have also observed, and indeed repeatedly experienced firsthand, his dedication to supporting other writers. For example, he uses his Frequently Felt blog to showcase our work, generously using his time and bandwidth to curate.

How typical it is of his spirit that when I invited M.C. to make an appearance here, he chose to use this opportunity, in part, to praise me. But I can't let you go without reprinting his bio, because my message here is a twofold one: M. Christian is a great guy AND M. Christian is a rock-star chameleon.



"M.Christian is an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 300 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and Web sites. He is the editor of 20 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others. He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, and Coming Together: M.Christian; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, and Painted Doll."



P.S. On the editing side, M.C. has a couple of exciting anthologies in the pipeline--watch this space!


Friends In Need

by M. Christian

It's funny that Jeremy asked me to write a little something for his blog here – funny because being asked to write something for this blog is exactly what I immediately planned to write about.


It's a song I've sung may times before but it 's always worth repeating: writing is a very tough life. The money is negligible, chances of fame are slim, and even respect from non-writing friends is far too rare.


Then there are other writers.


It's unfortunate but other writers – the very people you'd think would understand, be supportive, be caring – are too often part of the problem and not the solution. Sadly, it's understandable. Did I mention the low pay? The lack of respect? The complete lack of acknowledgement from a culture that's more interested in what celebrity is sleeping with what other celebrity than the fact that you, a writer, just finished a short, a novel, a script? With that type of pressure it's completely comprehensible that some writers would collapse into neuroses, arrogance, pathological competitiveness … in other words turn into total jerks.


Which is where Jeremy comes in … and no, he is not part of the latter. Instead, Jeremy is a stunning example of what brings tears to my so-jaded eyes: a writer who understands what it means to be a writer, who understands the battles we all have to fight, the pains we all have to suffer. But instead of letting the barrage of slings and arrows transform him into a "what can you do for me" hack he, instead, has been supportive, conscientious, and empathetic friend. The kind of friend everyone – especially writers – need.


I consider it a kind of personal mission to try and make (one) non-writers try to understand how hard it can be to be a writer. Yes, there is the zero dollars and the slim-to-none chance of ever becoming famous, but beyond that a writer is a supremely brave soul: with every story, every essay, every script, every novel they reach into their minds, their souls, and craft something the world has never seen before, something totally unique. And then they send that part of themselves out into a far-too-often uncaring world.


And (two) to make other writers understand that we are all in this together: there are no 'successful' and 'unsuccessful' writers. If you write, if you do that downward reaching into your soul and put it down onto the page you are the same as someone who gets million dollar advances and shows up on best seller lists. I can't say that enough or loud enough: We. Are. In. This. Together.


Sure, it was a small thing for Jeremy to ask me to write something for his blog – but it was a gesture all writers can learn from: reach out to other writers, try to understand that your pain is their pain, and – most importantly – we are not alone.


Thanks, Jeremy, for this opportunity – and thanks for being a true writing friend.

Dirtyville!

And Kinkyville!

The great Sommer Marsden is making her editing debut with two collections of hot and quirky behind-small-town-closed-doors sex stories! This is going to be so much fun!

Here are the lineups for both volumes ...

Dirtyville:

The Dentist's Wife by Scarlett Greyson
Bulldozers and Communion by P.S. Haven
Grip by City Different
Population 32 by Alison Tyler
Only On Sundays by Emma Hillman
Red Light, Green Light by Cora Zane
Bosier Green by Angela Caperton
The Water-Cooler Routine by Jeremy Edwards
Not Of This Place by Willsin Rowe
The Good Wife by T. Harrison
The Sweetshop Owner's Daughter by Vida Bailey
Today's Special by Heidi Champa
The Girl Next Door by Sommer Marsden

Kinkyville:

Crazed by Charlotte Stein
Weather Man by Shanna Germain
Daddy's Bad Girl by Parker Ford
Let Them Eat Crow by Alison Tyler
You Suck by Benjamin Eliot
Desert by Lux Zakari
Punishment Befitting The Crime by D.L. King
Barber's Pole by J.D. Waters
Saturday Night by Angell Brooks
The Goth Girl by Rita Winchester
Strawberry Social by Scarlett Greyson
Little Loan by May Deva
Music Lessons by Sommer Marsden

I'm so thrilled to be part of this. Thanks, Smut Girl!!

Special Guest Tomorrow!

Please join me here tomorrow, Wednesday, April (uh ... [looks at calendar]) 7th, when we'll have a special guest appearance by eminent eroticist M. Christian. True to form, the amazing MC has an eclectic bumper crop of new and forthcoming releases that all erotica fans should know about!

"A splendid demonstration of how to ally sex and humour"

Rock My Socks Off "will raise the reader’s temperature and royally entertain."

—Maxim Jakubowski, Lovereading UK

Thank you, Maxim and Lovereading!!!!!

Speech! Speech!

Drop by Black Heart Magazine to read a newly posted excerpt from Rock My Socks Off. I call this one the "speech-making scene."

Thank you, Black Heart!

I have to say ...

If you're part of Amazon's elite review program, and instead of reviewing what you've been sent (at your request), you outsource it to someone who flagrantly misquotes the book in an effort to disparage the writing style ... then I think you should be ejected from the program.

"Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews."