Emily L. Byrne is an erotica and erotic romance writer from the scenic Midwest. Her stories have appeared in such venues as FORBIDDEN FRUIT, BLOOD IN THE RAIN V.3, FIRST, YEAR'S BEST LESBIAN EROTICA: 20th ANNIVERSARY ED. and WITCHES, PRINCESSES AND WOMEN AT ARMS. Her books MEDUSA'S TOUCH, KNIFE'S EDGE and DESIRE are all available from Queen of Swords Press.
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
It's Give Out Day!
Today's the day to give to one or more of your favorite LGBTQ+ nonprofits! Check out the website for some great options and help queer nonprofits grow and better serve their communities. https://www.giveoutday.org/c/GO/
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Erotica and Plot
Your plot is the engine that drives your story. It’s why
your characters are there and it’s what’s motivating what they’re doing. At its
most basic, a plot is about a) a character who has a goal and b) faces
obstacles achieving his/her goal and either succeeds or fails to achieve it at
the end. Every character and obstacle that you add to that formula complicates
the plot. At the same time every story has to have at least this much of a
storyline to make it a real story instead of a collection of words on the page.
When it comes to writing erotica, many people, even other
writers, will tell you that erotica doesn’t require much of a plot. And it
doesn’t, if you’re not writing to get published and build a larger audience for your work. But if you are, you’ve read countless guidelines that say
that the editors want to see storylines that involve more than sex. Something
else needs to happen too; the characters need to grow or the situation needs
to change around them. For many writers, this is one of the lines that
separates erotica from pornography: erotica has a fully developed story line,
including a plot. For most writers, this is also the difference between a good
story and a bad story.
That said, having a plot that is geared toward erotic
situations is quite helpful if you’re writing erotica. An erotic plot can be as
minimal as character A meets character B, they develop a brief relationship,
then part never to meet again. Or as complicated as full-length novel in which
the characters become increasingly intimate over the course of time and events.
Defining your plot before you start writing can be helpful
for determining what your characters are like and how the story will play out
and end. Some plots are inherently erotic, such as attending a sex party, for
example. Others require some effort to make the situation erotic, like having
your characters meet in a laundromat.
First consider the length of the story that you want to
write. Is it a short story in the 3000 to 5000 word range? A novella in the
20,000 word range? Or a full-length novel? The longer the work, the more plot
it requires to keep the story afloat. Otherwise, you end up with pages and
pages of filler or worse, something repetitive and dull. On the other hand, if
you’re writing a shorter piece, you don’t want to end up with an overwhelmingly
complicated plot. Cramming a huge plot into a short story leads to loose ends
and reader confusion. Either way, it simply doesn’t do justice to your writing.
Once you’ve decided on length, look at what kind of story
you are writing. Science fiction and romance erotic plots are often relatively
complex, pure contemporary erotica is often less so. The readers of the former
will expect to find out something about the society the characters are living
in as well as what it is that brings them together. Readers of contemporary
erotica are participating in some version of the same society in their daily
lives and won’t require the same context to understand what is going on.
After you’ve defined your story length and genre, try
outlining some of the goals that your character(s) are striving toward and the
obstacles in their way. This outline can be as simple as a list of questions or as complex
as multiple paragraphs of description. The important thing is to establish
what the story is about for you as an author. Ask yourself the following
questions: what do your character's goals tell you about the characters themselves? What
kind of situations would best enable your characters to achieve their goals?
What kind would make it most difficult?
You don’t have to begin your story with the plot, of course.
For some writers, myself included, it can feel as if the characters themselves are
running the plot. I start out with the character and the character’s voice.
Once that’s fleshed out in my head, I come up with a plot that the character
can become enmeshed in. The positive side of this approach is that the plot
flows more naturally and I don’t have to do as much tweaking of the
character(s) to make it work since it’s a more or less organic whole. The downside
is that if I get carried away with plot complications (at the instigation of my
characters, of course!), the story balloons out of control and becomes
something very different than the one I set out to write.
What I do to control this is to make lists of all the
possible endings to my story and what it would take to get the characters to
those ends. For example, my main character is a warrior assigned to guard a
princess on a perilous trip to meet her betrothed in another land. The
obstacles to reaching the objective are a warlord who wants the princess for
himself; the princess, who isn’t sure that this wedding is such a great idea;
and the warrior’s own internal conflicts. Possible endings include: the
princess runs off with the warrior (option one); the warlord is defeated and
the princess marries her intended (option two); the princess falls for both the
warrior and the warlord and they all go off together (option three); or
everybody dies (option four).
Generally speaking, the last option is the least viable one
for erotic fiction, unless of course everyone gets laid a lot before they all
die. It can be done, but generally I’d go for one of the other plots. Options
one and three are good erotic setup situations, potentially fraught with sexual
tension. At the same time, something needs to happen to happen to convince the
princess that she wants to leave a life of luxury for option one to occur. For
option three to work, she needs to have feelings for both the warrior and the
warlord and something needs to motivate her to pursue those feelings. In order
for the option two story arc to be interesting, something needs to happen along
the way. Does she fall in love with one of the other two characters but decide
to marry her intended to keep the peace? Is her betrothed just a better catch
after she’s played around with one or both of the other two on the way there?
Once I’ve selected a plot that appeals to me, I start
working with the characters and figuring out how they’re going to achieve their
goals despite the obstacles. I usually begin with the How. All these characters
have to be brought together to make any of the plots described above work. How
becomes the warrior deciding to serve as the princess’ guard. How is also the
warlord deciding on a plan of attack, but this can occur offstage unless he’s
my point of view character.
Along with the How, is the Why. Is the warrior signing up
for guard duty because he, she or they (because a warrior or a king doesn't necessarily need to be a dude) is broke? Because she has the hots for the princess?
Because the King is blackmailing them into guard duty? For that matter, why
does the princess have reservations about marrying her fiancé? Is there
something about him that makes the warlord or the warrior or both look good in
comparison? Remember that something needs to motivate your characters to do the
things that they do.
Something else to bear in mind here is that some plots have
been done so often that they have become clichĂ©. Think about the plots you’ve read in the past; if it sounds familiar and you don’t have a new spin on
it, figure it’s been done before. In the story example above, for instance,
having the princess fall for the warrior after being rescued from the warlord
is the easy way out. It’s predictable and the reader will see it coming a mile
away. As a result, it’ll need something else: strong dialogue, unusual
characters and higher stake obstacles to make it stand out.
Your plot should also be coherent. One action should flow
from another in a logical way. Deviations from that flow need to be explained.
The key to plotting erotica is not to lose sight of your goal, namely the story
that you set out to write. Your characters need to end up in a situation that
makes sense in the context of the rest of your story. You have to build up to it and develop your characters along the
way. Remember that your plot helps your story stand out and highlights your
writing and all the effort you put into it so don’t neglect it.
Check out the writing columns and other resources at ERWA
for more suggestions and thoughts:
Friday, July 1, 2016
#Prideorgs - Celebrating and Supporting LGBTQ+ Organizations Part 2
See yesterday's post for the first part
of the list. As noted there, I picked three LGBTQ organizations a day
to plug; it's not an exhaustive list by any means, but I tried for a
broad range of topics and for organizations that are less high profile
and/or which are doing good work for folks who are otherwise not in the
spotlight. Hope that this proves useful!
Aging
#prideorgs #24 SAGE@sageusa - national organization providing support and advocacy for LGBTQ elders - http://www.sageusa.org-
#prideorgs #25 National Center on LGBT Aging@lgbtagingcntr - technical assistance and training for caregivers, etc. http://www.lgbtagingcenter.org -
#prideorgs #26 Zami Nobla@ZAMINOBLA support and programs for black lesbians and queer women on aging - http://www.zaminobla.org
Living with Disabilities
#prideorgs #27 Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf - Advocacy, support, biennial conference - http://www.deafrad.org-
#prideorgs #28 Blind LGBT Pride@blindprideintl - Advocacy, networking, support, conference - http://blindlgbtpride.org #prideorgs #29 Disability Visibility Project@DisVisibility - oral histories, social media campaigns,#CripTheVote - https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com
Suicide Counseling and Prevention
#prideorgs #30 The Trevor Project@TrevorProject - crisis intervention and suicide prevention for LGBTQ youth http://www.thetrevorproject.org-
#prideorgs #31 Trans Lifeline@Translifeline - support hotline for trans folks -http://www.translifeline.org -
#prideorgs #32 GLBT National Helpline@glbtNatlHelpCtr: coming out, family counseling, local resource referral, etc. http://www.glbthotline.org
Writing While Queer
#prideorgs #33 Outwrite@OutWriteDC - LGBTQ writers' festival in Washington, D.C.. http://thedccenter.org/outwritedc/-
#prideorgs #34 GCLS@goldencrownls - promoting lesbian lit, annual conference, awards, writing programs - http://www.goldencrown.org/?page=AboutUs -
#prideorgs #35 Lambda Literary@LambdaLiterary - website featuring reviews and essays, annual awards- http://www.lambdaliterary.org/
Native American Two Spirit and LGBTQ+
#Prideorgs #36 NativeOut@nativeout - resources for and about Native American Two Spirit people - http://nativeout.com-
#prideorgs #37 Dancing to the Eagle Spirit Society - Canada, healing/empowerment of Two Spirit aboriginal people - http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org - #prideorgs #38 Transformative Media Project
@tmorganizers - media organizing projects, incl. Two Spirit and LGBTQ - https://www.alliedmedia.org/tmo
Refugees
#prideorgs #39 Rainbow Welcome Initiative of@heartlandhelps - LGBTQ refugee resettlement and support -#refugees http://www.rainbowwelcome.org-
#prideorgs#refugees #40 Alturi@AlturiOrg - international LGBTQ rights, refugee support - http://www.alturi.org -
#prideorgs#refugees #41 LGBT Freedom and Asylum Network@lgbt_fan - support for asylum seekers - http://www.lgbt-fan.org
Religion and Humanism
#prideorgs #42 Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity@TheMASGD - support and networking - http://www.muslimalliance.org-
#prideorgs #43 Institute for Welcoming Resources@ShowerofStoles - welcoming Christian and Jewish congregations - http://www.welcomingresources.org -
#prideorgs #44 LGBTQ Humanist Alliance@LGBTQHumanists - resources/community for LGBTQ+ humanists and allies - http://lgbthumanists.org
Some Regional Organizations that Could Really Use a Hand
-
#prideorgs #45 Equality Mississippi@EqualityMiss - advocacy and support - http://www.equalitymississippi.org/about/ -
#prideorgs #46 Equality North Carolina@equalitync - lobbying, advocacy and support - http://equalitync.org/who/mission/ -
#prideorgs #47 Tennessee Equality Project@tnequality - education and legal and political - advocacy http://tnep.nationbuilder.com
Finishing out the list with theaters, because I love live theater and everybody should get to see themselves on stage:
#prideorgs #48 Split Britches@Split_Britches - lesbian theater company active for over 30 years - splitbritches.wordpress.com/about/#prideorgs #49 Gadfly Theatre Company@GadflyTheatre - new plays by/about LGBTQ+ people - http://www.gadflytheatre.org#prideorgs #50 Pride Films and Plays@PrideFilmsPlays - LGBT-themed plays, performance, films - pridefilmsandplays.com/
#Prideorgs - Celebrating and Supporting LGBTQ+ Organizations - Part 1
I'd been thinking about this project for Pride Month anyway, but Orlando made it feel a lot more necessary. As a rule, most nonprofit and/or advocacy organizations that focus on LGBTQ+ people are generally underfunded and understaffed. They don't have the resources to deal with huge demands, like the aftermath of a massacre or fighting the continuing onslaught of bathroom bills or equivalent disasters. They operate on a shoestring to support everything from suicide counseling to coming out to refugee assistance to legal aid to training the next generation of LGBTQ folks to be elected to public office. My hope is that people will donate where they can, volunteer and otherwise support these groups and others like them. I started this on June 14th and will be wrapping up on June 30th, but I thought I'd start compiling the list out here. I've been boosting 3 organizations a day which provide some sort of support to LGBTQ+ folks. Each three are more or less thematically linked, at last in my head. If you follow me on Twitter (@clundoff), you can follow along daily on the #prideorgs, but you can also see the list on a browser without logging in. It is U.S.-focused but there are some Canadian and international organizations included as well. Most site have additional resources and links to other groups.
Onsite assistance to Orlando shooting victims, their loved ones and their communities.
- #1 Equality Florida
@equalityfl Advocacy, education, outreach. http://www.eqfl.org/news/pulse - #2 The Center
@Center_Orlando - LGBT Center for Central FL - counseling, support groups http://www.thecenterorlando.org - #3.Unity Coalition
@unitycoalition Advocacy, services, social events for FL LGBTQ Latinos/as/x http://www.unitycoalition.org
- #4 Lambda Legal
@LambdaLegal legal advocacy since 1973 - employment discrimination, civil rights, marriage equality www.lambdalegal.org/about-us - #5 National Center for Lesbian Rights @NCLR - legal advocacy and policy creation to support the whole rainbow http://www.nclrights.org
- #6 Transgender Law Center
@TransLawCenter - Legal advocacy, policy, immigration issues, employment, etc. http://transgenderlawcenter.org/about
- #7 Third Wave Fund
@3Wave - funding grassroots activism by young queer activists http://thirdwavefund.org/index.html - #8 Horizons Foundation
@horizonsfdn - funding for community organizations, GiveOutDay sponsor www.horizonsfoundation.org/s/about/ - #9 Pfund Foundation
@PFundFoundation - funding for multicultural LGBTQ org and arts in the Midwest pfundfoundation.org/
LGBTQ Archives and Libraries
- #10 U of MN Tretter Collection is one of the largest LGBTQ+ archives in the world https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter
- #11 Quatrefoil Library
@Q_Library Lending library, archives, event space - http://www.qlibrary.org - #12 ONE Archives at USC
@ONEarchives - the largest LGBTQ+ collection in the world - http://one.usc.edu
Political Advocacy
- #13 Equality California
@eqca - civil rights fed and state http://www.eqca.org/our-endorsemen - #14 LPAC
@TeamLPAC - PAC focused on promoting the needs of queer women by electing supportive officials teamlpac.com/about-us/ - #15 Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund
@VictoryFund Training and funding for LGBTQ+ candidates https://www.victoryfund.org
- #16 BiNet USA
@BiNetUSA - networking and advocacy for bisexual folks http://www.binetusa.org - #17 National Center for Transgender Equality
@TransEquality - advocacy and support for trans folks http://www.transequality.org - #18 Gender Spectrum
@GenderSpectrum - works to create gender-inclusive support for youth https://www.genderspectrum.org
- #19. Ali Forney Center
@AliForneyCenter - services and advocacy for homeless LGBTQ youth http://www.aliforneycenter.org/about-us/ - #20 True Colors Fund
@TrueColorsFund - advocacy and policy making to end LGBTQ youth homelessness https://truecolorsfund.org - #21 Thrive Youth Center
@ThriveYouthSA - shelter, support and advocacy for quiet homeless youth (TX) www.thriveyouthcenter.com/#!the-project/ceu8
- #22 Audre Lorde Project
@audrelorde - community and activism center for NYC area POC LGBTQ+ folks http://alp.org/about - #23 Trikone
@trikone - International advocacy and support for South Asian LGBTQ+ folks - http://www.trikone.org - #24 Black Girl Dangerous
@BGDblog - multimedia blog for queer and trans POC folks - http://www.blackgirldangerous.org
Monday, June 20, 2016
GCLS Annual Conference
The Golden Crown Literary Society is having its annual lesbian fiction conference in a couple of weeks in Washington, D.C. There'll be panels, talks, readings, the Goldie Awards and other fun stuff. It's definitely worthwhile if you write romance, paranormals, lit fiction, etc. with lesbian characters. And as a two-time Goldie Award winner, my congrats to the nominees and finalists for this year!
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Pride Month boosting
Like a lot of folks, I'm still reeling from the horrible events in Orlando. I want to do something to help on a larger scale, so I've started a new project on Twitter to boost organizations working with LGBTQ folks in the U.S and internationally.
Details: I've started a project on Twitter that I'd been thinking about already, but which now feels a lot more urgent. Organizations that work with LGBTQ populations tend to be critically underfunded and understaffed. It shouldn't take horrible tragedies for them to get support for education, advocacy and organization they provide. So for the rest of Pride Month, I'm going to be boosting several organizations (not business at this time) a day. Hashtag is #prideorgs and my Twitter is @clundoff for those who want to boost, follow along, etc.
I hope you'll join in!
Saturday, May 28, 2016
"Planet 10" is featured on the Nobilis Erotica Podcast!
Happy news for today - my lesbian science fiction erotica story, "Planet 10" is featured on the Nobikis Erotica Podcast. "Planet 10" is about aliens and fetishes and submission and transformation and is, I hope, still pretty hot. It originally appeared in the Best Lesbian Erotica series, as well as in a collection of my earlier work. happy listening!
Monday, May 23, 2016
“The Highs and Lows of Promoting Lesbian Fiction”
I'm going to start reposting some of my blogs from other sites which I think might still be useful to folks reading this blog... Today's adventure: Promotion and writing
“The Highs and Lows
of Promoting Lesbian Fiction”
If you’re an author these days, whether traditionally or
indie published, finding ways to get the word out about your work is critical
to the success of your book. Publishers are slashing budgets and staff for
promotion, which means that even authors published by large publishers are
looking for newer and more creative ways to publicize their books. At the same
time, the review and other traditional publicity options for indie published
books haven’t caught up with the vast number of new titles.
When you’re an author who writes for a smaller niche market,
things get even tougher. I write lesbian fiction: science fiction and fantasy,
erotica, and some romance. Small press lesbian fiction that isn’t primarily a
romance is a challenge to promote, to put it mildly. There are few options for
getting your book reviewed: fewer specialized websites, fewer book
bloggers. There can be fewer
options for guest blogging or podcasting or doing bookstore readings. There is
one major conference (other than publisher-specific gatherings) for lesbian
fiction (the annual Golden Crown Literary Conference).
It’s considered a truism that as compared to gay fiction,
lesbian fiction doesn’t sell that well (someone helpfully pointed this out on
my Twitter feed just this morning). This looks particularly overwhelming when
sales for m/m (written for a primarily female audience) is rolled in with other
forms of gay fiction (written for a primarily male audience). The larger the target audience, the
bigger the sales, at least in theory.
That said, harder is not the same as impossible. Genre plays
a big part in how easy it is to promote something: romance sells better than
other genres, followed by mystery. But even that’s not a stroll in the park:
big genre authors needs to find their audiences just as smaller genre or
subgenre authors do. Access to more opportunities makes it easier but that’s
not necessarily the same as “easy.”
What that leaves is the need to get creative about marketing
our books. We have to get our books out there to build an audience, then find
ways to consistently maintain and grow that audience. I don’t have any easy
answers that will apply to all books and all writers but my initial publicity
efforts for my first novel are laid out in
this guest blog post to give you an idea of some of the things I’ve tried.
I’ve been building on my experiences with each of my books and I make a new
list of things to try whenever I have a new book coming out.
Do they all work, in the sense of selling more books? Alas,
no. Nor can I tell you definitively what drove someone to buy one of my books
(unless they told me) after any particular promotional push. And, furthermore,
I will be honest and say that the most money I’ve ever made from an individual
fiction sale was from my only m/m story. But, and this is an important “but,”
I’m picking up a larger audience with each book and it’s not limited by genre
or sexual orientation. People who
read my novel are also reading some of my short story collections and the
anthologies I’ve edited. I also have many more promotional opportunities than I
had when my first short fiction collection came out in 2005.
Where did those opportunities come from? Some came from
practice: I did it once and it worked so I did it again. Some came from
accumulated name recognition over the course of several years and books. Some
came because I pushed myself to ask and to follow up on them. This last one is
important. Don’t assume that a blogger won’t review your book or that you can’t
get on a writer panel or that there isn’t an email list out there where you can
promote your work. Ask or create your own. Audiences are built over time and
lesbian fiction writers have more of any opportunity to build those audiences
than ever before.
Some tips:
1. Look
at what other writers in your genre and style are doing to promote themselves.
Learn from the good and the bad, so you don’t repeat their mistakes as well as
their successes.
2. Think
outside the proverbial box. What would you like to do to sell your books that
you haven’t done before? What do you need to do to make it happen?
3. Think
past your current book. What’s your next book going to be? How are you planning
to promote it?
4. Build
relationships with other authors, book bloggers, reviewers, bookstores and
people in your social networks. Networking should involve give and take to keep
it stable and make it effective.
5. Don’t
give up on writing what you want to write.
Some resources:
Author K.T. Grant, blog post – “Lesbian
Fiction/Romance Does Sell Well and Here’s How I Know…”
Golden Crown Literary
Society – organization for writers of lesbian fiction in all genres.
Booklife: Strategies
and Survival Tips for the 21st Century Writer by Jeff VanderMeer
(Tachyon Publications, 2009). Excellent resource for strategizing how and why
you do publicity for your books.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Where to find me on social media
In addition to blogging here, I can be found on Twitter as @EmilyLByrne, on Facebook and on my new Favebook author page as https://www.facebook.com/Writer-Emily-L-Byrne-838988202911365/
and on Google+ as Emily Byrne+
Please feel free to link, like and so forth!
I'm also happy to host guest blogs from lesfic and f/f erotica and erotic romance writers - drop me a line at writeremilylbyrne(at)gmail.com if you're interested.
and on Google+ as Emily Byrne+
Please feel free to link, like and so forth!
I'm also happy to host guest blogs from lesfic and f/f erotica and erotic romance writers - drop me a line at writeremilylbyrne(at)gmail.com if you're interested.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Podcast acceptance!
My reprinted story "Planet 10" will be included in the Strange Transformations series at the Nobilis Erotica Podcast! This will be the fourth appearance for "Planet 10," though first in this media. It originally appeared in Best Lesbian Erotica 2006, got reprinted in Stripped Down: Best Lesbian Erotica, then included in my short story collection, Night's Kiss: Lesbian Erotica. It's about lesbian aliens and weird fetishes and BDSM and yes, strange transformations. Check back in for the release date and in the meantime, please check out the other Nobilis podcasts and their Patreon. Lots of good stuff out there, including a smoking hot reading of my vampire story, "El Tigre."
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Win a free book and new CFS
Or at least a chance at a free book.
My esteemed editor for Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary, Sacchi Green, is doing a giveaway on Women and Words. Leave a comment for a chance to win!
Editor D. L. King will be the editor for the next volume of Best Lesbian Erotica. Her guidelines can be found here.
D.L. King is also looking for stories for Unspeakably Erotic: Lesbian Kink. Guidelines are here.
Nobilis Erotica podcast is looking for erotic SF about bizarre transformations, amongst other things.
And there's a bunch of new calls on the Erotic Readers and Writer's Association website.
Me, I'm working on stuff and trying to get things out the door. More soon, I hope!
My esteemed editor for Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary, Sacchi Green, is doing a giveaway on Women and Words. Leave a comment for a chance to win!
Editor D. L. King will be the editor for the next volume of Best Lesbian Erotica. Her guidelines can be found here.
D.L. King is also looking for stories for Unspeakably Erotic: Lesbian Kink. Guidelines are here.
Nobilis Erotica podcast is looking for erotic SF about bizarre transformations, amongst other things.
And there's a bunch of new calls on the Erotic Readers and Writer's Association website.
Me, I'm working on stuff and trying to get things out the door. More soon, I hope!
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Getting a Clue and "The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet"
Welcome to my post for the Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary Edition Blog Tour! Our wonderful editor Sacchi Green has organized a series of these to celebrate 20 years of terrific lesbian erotica from Cleis Press. Check out the whole series here.
This marks my 9th appearance in the series, which is pretty exciting for me as a writer, and hopefully for you as readers! I've had stories in Best Lesbian Erotica 1999, BLE 2001, BLE 2005, BLE 2006, BLE 2008, BLE 2011, BLE 2014 and BLE 2015 and had the opportunity to work with Kathleen Warnock, Tristan Taormino, Laura Antoniou and a host of fabulous guest editors along the way. I'm so glad that Sacchi Green liked my story enough to include it in this year's edition.
"The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet" first appeared in Cheyenne Blue's anthology Forbidden Fruit. Its genesis goes a tad further back to a cancelled lesbian noir anthology and an earlier version of the story that I didn't like as well. Truth be told, there were several versions of this story. For this one, I pared it down and reworked it from the original versions, but kept the two main characters: a notorious jewel thief (Miss Scarlet) and her obsessed foe, a police detective named Kendra McClain. Sparks fly when they get close enough to each other for a train ride that neither will forget in a hurry!
Excerpt:
The smile widened, brilliant lipstick parting over bright
white teeth. “You can call me Scarlet, Miss Scarlet, if we’re going to be
formal.” She tucked the e-reader away in a small black bag that matched her
heels, but she didn’t take her gaze away from Kendra’s face.
“Are we playing Clue?
I’m not sure I want to be Colonel Mustard in the library, with or without a
candlestick.” Kendra grimaced. She glanced down, this time looking beyond
Scarlet’s body to her accessories. James always said that you could read a lot
about a woman by what kind of jewelry she wore and how she put together her
outfits. Kendra usually blew that off as his one concession to metrosexuality,
but she was willing to make an exception tonight.
Everything matched,
not a hair out of place, not a chipped nail or a makeup smudge. Everything this
woman wore was assembled with such care and thoroughness that she might have
been playing a part on stage. With one exception: one of her rings was a giant,
gaudy bit of bling that didn’t match her industrial-style silver earrings,
necklace and watch. The ring was a mass of ornate curlicues around a faceted
glass stone that was far too large and shiny to be a real diamond.
“Nice ring,” Kendra
drawled as the station signal beeped to let them know that their train was
coming in.
“Like it?” Scarlet
smiled at her upraised hand. “I--” And the noise of the onrushing train cut her
off. But for one crazy moment, Kendra could have sworn that she said, “I stole
two others nearly the same size in Monte Carlo last year.”
“What?” Kendra looked
at Scarlet as closely as she could as she trailed the other woman onto the
train. She reached for her phone, wondering if she could do a quick search on
jewel thefts in Monte Carlo without arousing too much suspicion. But they were
alone in the train car and headed into a tunnel, so there would be no signal
even if she tried to claim a text message.
And they were sitting
down and Scarlet was resting her hand on Kendra’s arm, caressing it, stroking
it until Kendra, watching it, thought she might go up in flames. “You’re so
very strong, Detective. I do like a nice strong girl.” Scarlet looked up at her
through thick black lashes, her gaze an invitation.
Buy the book at your favorite store or follow the link for other options.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
Help for writer Lars Eighner
@LarsEighner has written some fine books, including the terrific guide to writing better erotica, "Elements of Arousal." Please help him w/ medical bills if you can https://www.gofundme.com/fundlars
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
"Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year: 20th Anniversary Edition" is here!
This marks my 9th appearance in this series under various names, which I'm pretty excited about. But "The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet" marks my first appearance as Emily Byrne so it's still like a first time! You can find links for buying this lovely book here. There's a Goodreads Giveaway in progress and you can sign up here. I hope you enjoy this installment of the series1
Table of Contents
Introduction by Editor Sacchi Green
Dust Rose de Fer
Ascension Louise Blaydon
Tomato Bondage Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Royalty Underground Megan McFerren
Reunion Tour Harper Bliss
Hot Blood D. L. King
Make Them Shine Sossity Chiricuzio
Tears from Heaven Jean Roberta
Luscious and Wild Sinclair Sexsmith
Smorgasbord R. G. Emanuelle
A Professional Rose P. Lethe
Easy Anna Watson
Grind House Valerie Alexander
Give and Take Annabeth Leong
Mirror, Mirror Frankie Grayson
The Road to Hell Cheyenne Blue
The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet Emily L. Byrne
Introduction
The Best Lesbian Erotica series has a
special place in my heart. Twenty years ago, in 1996, Tristan Taormino and
Cleis Press published the first volume of Best
Lesbian Erotica, and in 1999, to my amazement, my own very first erotica
story made it into that anthology. When Tristan Taormino called and said that
she loved my piece because it was so different
I was hooked on the series and the entire genre for good. (Tristan also
very kindly pointed out the many improvements I needed to make, of course; I
had a lot to learn.) Seven more of my stories made it into further editions of Best Lesbian Erotica, although I got a
bit distracted in recent years with editing ten themed anthologies of lesbian
erotica myself, eight of them for Cleis Press. Editing this one feels like the
greatest honor of all.
Back in 1996 there were far fewer markets for
well-written lesbian erotica than there are now, but there were many majorly
talented writers with the courage and the burning desire to tell the stories
demanding to be told, stories that can still stir your senses and linger in
your mind. There have been some changes in erotica over the years, largely in
how far we dare to go and how much we think we can get away with, but I still
remember stories from those earlier years as challenging as any written today.
The main difference these days is in the quantity of
lesbian erotica available, and the numbers of people writing it well. For this
2016 edition (the title, Best Lesbian
Erotica of the Year, has changed just a bit, but it’s still the same
series) there was a superabundance of excellent work, and choosing was a
harrowing as well as stimulating experience. Tastes differ, of course,
especially when it comes to erotic preferences, so not every story will push
every reader’s buttons, but for me the writers here make this edition
outstandingly worthy of Best Lesbian Erotica’s
long tradition of sexy excellence.
In the limited space of a single anthology, “best”
has to take into account factors beyond any single measurement of quality. An
apples and oranges comparison just won’t cut it; envision instead, say, peaches…smooth,
rosy, rounded peaches…and pears…and maybe the occasional heavy melon… But don’t
worry. No actual fruit metaphors are abused in this book.
Like Tristan way back then, the idea of “best” for
me includes “different,” whether it’s a brand-new treatment of a familiar theme,
a way with language that makes the words dance to an inspired beat, or a plot I’ve
never seen before. Beyond those, each story has to contribute to a balance in
the work as a whole, which should include a variety of themes, settings,
voices, tone, and diversity of ages, ethnicities and physical attributes. Above
all, “best” should mean original ideas, vividly drawn settings, creative
imagery, fully developed, believable characters (even if occasionally that
requires readers to suspend disbelief for the sake of arousal), and, of course,
plenty of steamy sex, with intensely erotic scenes that flow naturally from the
story as a whole, ranging from vanilla to BDSM to edgy frontiers that defy
classification.
Originality takes many forms. D. L. King melds the familiar
tropes of werewolves and lesbian auto mechanics into a character as likable as
she is sexy. Megan McFerren’s characters take refuge in a London bomb shelter
during WWII. Emily L. Byrne’s brilliant incarnation of Miss Scarlet seduces a
police detective in the NYC subway system. Louise Blaydon’s “nice girl” and “bad
girl” strike sparks together forming a band on the gritty side of Liverpool in
1961. There are stories with touches of humor, or moments of tenderness, or
immersions in the no-holds-barred depths of bondage and the keen pleasures of
pain—and now and then all three at once.
What you get, in this anthology, is a seemingly
infinite variety of lesbian erotic desires, in all the heat, beauty and power
of both our darkness and our light. I’m immeasurably grateful to all these
writers who crafted their stories as only each one of them could, and offered
them to be included here.
From me, from the writers, and, I hope, from many of
you readers; Happy Twentieth Birthday, Best
Lesbian Erotica of the Year! Birthday spankings may be in order, but be
gentle with your paperbacks. With e-books—well, maybe you’d better find a
surrogate spankee. Just read a few of these stories with her to warm things up.
Sacchi Green
Amherst, MA
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