eXcessica is giving away TWO Kindle 3 eBook Readers with wi-fi AND they will be already pre-loaded with dozens (75+!) of eXcessica eBooks!

Our scavenger hunt runs from Sept 1 – Sept 30, 2010 and there are LOTS of way to win!

Besides the TWO KINDLE 3 READERS – the following prizes will also be given out:

• * $20 Amazon Gift Card (5 giveaways)
• * The ENTIRE Excessica Anthology Collection to Date (2 giveaways)
  
• * Excessica Anthologies, given individually (7 total giveaways)
  
• * A”habu” collection, including Rough Rides, Across the Threshold, Deal Closer, Hard Knocks U and Creampuffs (3 giveaways)
  
• * A Selena Kitt collection, including The Surrender of Persephone, Heidi and the Kaiser, Bluebeard’s Wife, Taken, Falling Down and Quickies (3 giveaways)
• * And don’t forget to come to the CHAT for even MORE chances to win prizes!

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT THE DETAILS
AND GOOD LUCK!

Well, actually, I guess now that I reread that title, it is also a lie because I only wear make-up on really rare occasions. But, I am of course speaking of Book Covers. I have recently gotten some really wonderful ones for my 2011 Excessica Releases.

If you also are my friend on Facebook or follow me on twitter or other blogs, I apologize for posting this first cover everywhere recently. But, I am just so thrilled with it I could not wait several months to share it. Torn Asunder is a paranormal (witches and shape shifters), historical (regency-set), erotic romance novel which will release in Jan 2011. I am so excited to share the cover for many reasons. The cover quote is obviously one. I have been reading and loving novels by NY Times Bestselling Author, Hannah Howell for years. I especially love her regency set ones with paranormal elements. Just finished If He’s Wild this summer – amazing! Anyway, I have had to pinch myself to think of her reading one of my stories, let alone liking it. Just in case you are wondering, our last names are a cool coincidence – no relation. I also want to thank my cover artist, Emma Hillman – especially for putting up with me through numerous tweaks to the cover (that is once we finally decided on one) as well as the waiting to hear from Hannah Howell! LOL

So, the cover…

Also, I just got this amazing full print layout of my April 2011 release of another paranormal (wizards and sorcerers), erotic romance novel set in contemporary times called, Irreconcilable Differences. The cover artist here is Dakota Trace. I have loved this picture with the mindlight on it. They are something I use often in training the magical heroes and heroines in my stories, so I am thrilled to be able to use it. The castles and mist are just wonderful. Paranormal covers are always fun to play with. I love covers that mix elements. I would love to be able to design them myself, but I would probably spend too many hours playing!

Interestingly, I have a cover I am really curious to see finished for a Halloween anthology I have a story in. Each of six authors submitted a cover art request sheet so the cover artist could try to incorporate all the different paranormal elements. Should be cool!

I will leave you with a little collage of my covers I did for my website.
Have A Magical Day! Take Some Time For A Little Fantasy!
Kiki

Hey folks, I hope your August was a good one! I can’t quite believe it’s September already.

Since I last blogged here I’ve had two new eXcessica publications. Woohoo!

First up is a collection of 18 short erotica stories, UNASHAMED.

Let Saskia Walker take you on an erotic journey of discovery with eighteen red hot stories of love, lust, and blatant seduction. Titillating, tantalizing, and totally explicit, UNASHAMED delivers diverse sexual scenarios from first love explorations to forbidden rendezvous, raunchy threesomes to playful committed couples. The characters in these stories revel in their sexuality-with delicious and climactic results.

You can read an excerpt from UNASHAMED here.

Secondly is AGAINST THE GRAIN. This novella is an erotic futuristic story:

In Delfidian, a future world where females rule and mate only with each other, desiring sex with males is seen as a throwback to ancient times. Aurora, a government worker, is matched with a male called Sullivan for procreation, a task generally disliked by females. But Aurora likes having sex with him, a lot, and Sullivan secretly enjoys it too. Their relationship is passionate, fast blossoming into romance. But that’s not allowed! If the true nature of their affair was discovered, they would be arrested and treated for insanity, their minds scanned and cleaned.

Meanwhile, Diva, Aurora’s female lover, follows the same dangerous path when she sees Fyre, a male. When the four deviants explore their sexuality together they find that forbidden fruit has never tasted so good. Sexual desire is a powerful force, one that will make us break down boundaries and flout norms when we are in its grip. Trying to control it can only spell trouble….

You can read an excerpt from AGAINST THE GRAIN here.

If you check either of these books out, I hope you enjoy the read.

Also launched today is the eXcessica Kindle 3 giveaway scavenger hunt – check it out here!
If you’re in the USA or Canada, you won’t want to miss this one.

Hugs
Saskia
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/home.html
http://www.saskiawalker.blogspot.com/

My main character  in Cinderella Thyme is flawed.  She’s a mental mess.  But I love her.  There are parts to the story, when she’s heading for a train wreck that must occur, where I want to rescue her.  I assure you there’ll be a happy ending and I’ll steer her in the right direction, but it’s not a perfectly pretty road.

I’ve taken a lot of breaks this summer while writing and almost shelved the novel forever, because there was this horrible feeling I had that no one would want to read tragic sexy.  Do you?  Sometimes people love real life, and of course, there are others that come here to get away from it. 

There are heaps of reasons people read erotica.  I mean, I imagine they come to get pointers or they get their pointers to come.  One or the other or both.  Do they come for the plot?  Tell me.

Miller, Thyme and Tay Smytheson are like a trinity of me.  They each have a piece of me, different bits.  When I was writing Cinderella Club I became Miller, naive sexy.  Thyme is not that.  She’s an emotional rollercoaster and that consumes me.  I’ve been thinking like her and acting more impulsively.  Once I actually said something out loud that I was thinking – you know?  Like a conversation I was having w/ myself slipped out.  It happened as I was walking into a store.  No one notices stuff like that around here, thank god.  Still, it weirded me out.  Scared me a little that I’d get that sucked into train wreck sexy.

Does this happen to any of you with your characters?  Where they seem so real you can see them and hear them and talk to them…and love them?  Or am I turning schizo?

Well, hello there!  This is Gavin with Excessica’s releases for 08/27/10!  This week we offer a scorching new BDSM short from Heidi Michelle set in the Paris underground.  We continue on to the shady world of robot prostitution with D.B. Story’s new sci fi release.  (Remember Gigolo Joe from the movies?  Here’s Gigolo Jane!)  Then, how can a personal assistant say no to her gorgeous, demanding boss in bestselling author Emma Hillman’s latest Rubenesque romance.  Last, what will happen when a university student begins an affair with her darkly supernatural professor?  Author B.J. Franklin has the answer!

Have a great week!

eXcessica new releases

City of Light

By Heidi Michelle

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (5,140 words)

Category: BDSM

Firebolt Level: 4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HEA

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

Come explore the pleasures to be found in the darker reaches of a city renown for its beauty, artistry and history. Follow Cyn’s story as she follows her Master, for the first time and beyond, into another world – one of perverse pleasure, decadent personalities, and exquisite sensuality. Experience the delicious disparity between common day and the darkest depths of desire in an elite setting of privilege and power, while you submerge your senses in a bacchanalian dance of sheer, wanton delight.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, BDSM concepts, violence and multi-party sexual conduct.

G. Jane

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (13,775 words)

Category: Sci Fi, Romance

Firebolt Level: 3

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

You may recall a Gigolo Jane from a big budget robot movie—but only if you looked very quickly. She was obviously too hot for the screen and was only granted a few brief words and a few seconds of screen time. Now discover the full story of one of her model type. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 2, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This book contains sex with robots, prostitution, and lesbian hints.

One Last Vice

By Emma Hillman

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (13,227 words)

Category: Romance, Rubenesque

Firebolt Level: 2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Chloe’s boss has gone crazy. She’s been his PA for years and has always known about his wild streak but this beats it all! Now he’s asking her to have sex with him. And why? Because he’s just stopped smoking and he needs to keep busy in order to fight cravings. What the hell, right?

It doesn’t help that she’s been in love with him for years. And as she finds herself unable to say no, she braces herself for the broken heart she’s sure will follow.

What she doesn’t know however is that James has a hidden agenda…

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, light bondage and sex.

The Demon Professor

By B.J. Franklin

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (4,049 words)

Category: Paranormal

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HEA

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

The Professor, a university tutor who happens to be a demon, has been living as human for four hundred years. He is quite content with his books and is renowned as an expert in his field – after all, he lived through the time period he lectures on. But a student called Lisa calls to his power and he can’t resist revealing his true nature, using strong magic to seduce her. Lisa is swept away by a sea of lust as she falls deeper and deeper under his spell.

He intends to bind her to him for eternity, but Lisa has a secret of her own and won’t let him have everything his own way. This tale of sensuality and irresistible need will make you squirm with desire as you get caught up in the same magical currents as Lisa, and will make you gasp as the final twist is revealed in a stunning, and very sexy, conclusion.

Warnings: This story contains elements of non-consensual appearing sex (although they are actually consensual) as part of a magic spell.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

Let’s talk about sex in public.

(Eep!) *Giselle scurries far, far away. Giselle peeks her head out, sighs, and then drags her feet back to the computer*

Okay…I’ve written about public sex quite a lot. In THE BIRTHDAY GIFT and TANGLED ROOTS, I wrote about the exhilaration of being naked outdoors in the summer sun. In ONDINE, I described a ballerina’s fear of being scolded by the Mistress when her fellow ballet student turns her on during lessons. In KANDINSKY’S SHIRT BUTTON, I included an under-the-table handjob in a fancy restaurant. You might think I enjoyed getting it on in public.

I don’t.

I did when I was younger. Correction: when I was younger, I had fewer options. When I was young I didn’t have a place of my own, of course. I came from a large family and had little privacy. Sexual experiences were relegated by default to a bit of rubbing in a public park, or in the woods, or in a parked car. And back then, of course, I was so overwhelmed by hormones that I didn’t give a good gosh-darn if a dog walker, or a family of humans, or a family of wolves passed by. The sex drive overpowered the social propriety fight-or-flight response.

That was then. This is now. This is Giselle among the grown-ups. Oh no…I just looked in the mirror, and I’m not entirely certain, but I think I might be one of them! Career, apartment, steady relationship, 2.5 cats…yup, I’m an adult all right. *sighs* Well, we all knew this was coming.

And with that security, for me, has come the fear of getting caught.

Now, I happen to have a partner who pushes my limits. I can’t even begin to tell you all the bizarre places we’ve had a go at each other and yet Sweet claims she’s no exhibitionist. She has little interest in public sex, but early in our relationship she hit on this area of vulnerability for me and chose to exploit it. This, she freely admits. Nice girl, huh? But we’ve always had a smidgen of a D/s thing going on, and I love the power she wields over me.
So…I’ve been procrastinating a bit by telling you all that. There’s a story I want to tell you, and I’m working myself up to it. *Giselle takes a deep breath* Okay, I think I’m ready.

I think we got caught.

The other day Sweet had me alone. We were indoors in a place where every door was not only unlocked but wide open. Very restricted privacy. People would be arriving any moment. These impending arrivers knew us, but not as a couple (I might have mentioned Sweet is still very much in the closet) and I take my job of protecting her secrets very seriously.

But she’s bad. Oh, that girl is just bad, bad, bad. Right out in the open, she set her hand between my thighs. She started rubbing. And she said what she always says: “I can stop if you want me to.”

Oh, that vixen! Once she’s got her hands on me, I can never tell her to stop. Even though I’m scared to death of being caught and facing all the consequences, all the repercussions, all the embarrassment…it feels so good. And it’s not just how it feels. It’s a battle of wills. If I tell her to stop, she wins. Maybe I’m not such a good sub after all. Maybe I don’t like to lose.

We were in a very open room, and even so, clothes came off. Not two minutes later, we heard the distinct sound of approaching footsteps. They were right inside the building. I know we heard them at the same time because we both stopped what we were doing and dressed fast. By the time the lurker arrived before us, we were fully clothed, yes, but looking extremely shifty.

The lurker knew. I’m sure of it. You can tell when somebody’s nervous around you by the evasive gestures and the lack of eye contact. What’s worse, I’m sure the lurker saw something, and if not saw, certainly heard. And I don’t know yet if those moments of questionable resolve will have consequences.

As I said, I don’t like public sex. The hands tracing flesh, tearing off clothing, racing hearts, whispered words, suppressed cries…oh…oh no, I don’t like that one bit.

Hugs,

Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

http://gisellerenarde.webs.com

http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde
http://audreyandlawrence.viviti.com/

And I have to admit, I’m going to miss them this year. Most years I am doing a happy dance like on the Staples commercial when they pipe “It’s the most wonderful time of the year…” through loud speakers. But this year, it’s all  changed in a blink.

Both kids are older. He’s on his Xbox live cursing like a sailor and playing games with kids all over the country. She’s on her laptop writing her stories/books diligently. Coming to me for advice on writing (*gasp!*). Designing cover art for teen lists for writers. Oh. My God.

Then they go to the beach with dear old mom aka me. Or the library. The mall. Grocery shopping. They come out of their caves and help me bake cookies in the new oven or they watch a show with  me on Comedy Central. They are officially…good company.

No one tugged at me I’m hungry, feed me. No one whined I’m bored. I did get quite a few: Can I get a ride’s and several Can you spot me five dollars? but hey. That is the job, you know.

Anyway. School shopping for shoes today. Busy weekend. And then school starts and this year…this year I will miss them. As they would say…WTF? Eep! Back to talking to the fat weiner dog!

Please stop into My Big Fat American Contest if you get a chance. Help a girl out.

XOXO
Sommer

Hi, there!  This is Gavin your friendly Excessica publicist with the releases for 08/20/10!  This week the accent is on science fiction with another great fembot tale (or m-bot this time!) from D.B. Story and a red hot novelette set on a futuristic distant planet from acclaimed author, Saskia Walker.  Taking a break from the Sci Fi, Selena Kitt gives us a story of what a paraplegic is willing to do to make sure his wife has everything she desires, and Kenn Dahll continues his blazing hot M/M subtropical trilogy.

Say!  Did you happen to miss Blood Hero by Madeleine Drake?  It’s a scorching vampire meets succubus story set in an exotic ancient land.  It’s received a boatload of stellar reviews, so don’t forget to check it out!  Have a great week!

eXcessica new releases

Against the Grain

By Saskia Walker

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (26,000 words)

Category: Sci Fi/Fantasy

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

In Delfidian, a future world where females rule and mate only with each other, desiring sex with males is seen as a throwback to ancient times. Aurora, a government worker, is matched with a male called Sullivan for procreation, a task generally disliked by females. But Aurora likes having sex with him, a lot, and Sullivan secretly enjoys it too. Their relationship is passionate, fast blossoming into romance. But that’s not allowed! If the true nature of their affair was discovered, they would be arrested and treated for insanity, their minds scanned and cleaned.

Meanwhile, Diva, Aurora’s female lover, follows the same dangerous path when she sees Fyre, a male. When the four deviants explore their sexuality together they find that forbidden fruit has never tasted so good. Sexual desire is a powerful force, one that will make us break down boundaries and flout norms when we are in its grip. Trying to control it can only spell trouble….

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex including hetero, f/f, and group sex scenes.

I’ll Be Your Superman

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (5,040 words)

Category: Menage

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HEA

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

Evan, a paraplegic, knows that his wife wants more than he can give her, and he’s determined to find a way to fulfill her secret wish…

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, sex, and a mmf threesome.

Robert Steel

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (11,340)

Category: Sci Fi/Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Taming your own Emancipated m-bot is never a job for the timid or not-well-prepared, although the reward for success is immense. Here you can learn how it’s done by a graduate of the Fembot Studies class. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 2, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots.

Subtropical Trilogy 2: Not Looking for Love

By Kenn Dahll

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (4,812 words)

Category: Gay, Contemporary

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

This is the second of three short stories of sun, sea, sand, sex, and love that comprise Subtropical Trilogy. Trent is Not Looking for Sex as he drives home from a session watching the young surfers on Palm Beach. His route is blocked by a raised drawbridge. Waiting in his convertible for the bridge to descend, he converses with a lone surfer hiking back to the mainland. An offer of assistance turns into a lot more when the duo ends up in Trent’s bedroom.

Warnings: This title contains M/M sex both oral and anal.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

#1  -  Don’t Panic!

On Friday the 13th – yes THAT day – my computer – my ever present companion, crapped out. 

While I was in the shower no less. 

I left it in fine working order, went to wash the sweat from my exercised body and came back to an ominous black screen with the horrific words “Operating system not found” screaming from the monitor. 

Panic set in and the accusations flew, directed toward the nearest child – “What’d you do to my computer?” 

“Nothing.”  The pat answer that always follows my special accusatory tone – you know the one, the tone only a parent can deliver. 

“Uh-huh, right, really, what’d you do?” 

“Nothing Mom – I didn’t touch the computer!”

#2 – Don’t blame your kids! They tend to get bent when it really wasn’t their fault.

And her intensity told me she really didn’t touch my sacred netbook. 

#3 – Follow the manufacturer troubleshooting guide *exception – see #4 below!

So I tried the cursory reboot.  Nothing. Turned off, unplugged, counted to ten and rebooted.  Same damn black screen. 

Now panic laced its way into my mouth and my mind raced, calculating the last time I backed up my stuff.  Not recent enough.  A month, maybe more – oh no.  What have I lost? 

You see – I’ve already forgotten rule #1.

I kept telling myself to Chill – even while reading through the manufacturer website and walking through the troubleshooting methods. 

Nothing.  And now I’m really in a state of duress.  Mybrain starts tabulating the cost of things I lost, like a whole slew of things I’m using for my not yet completed video trailers – ugh.  Some of which I can’t get back without paying for again, and believe me – they weren’t cheap. 

I tried again.

 Still nothing but the black screen with the hideous words.

#4 – If you need your data – DO NOT DO A FULL RESTORE!  Yes – this warning warrants all caps because if you choose this option,  it will wipe everything out.  A painful lesson I learned a while ago.  However, in this instance, I couldn’t even get to the restore function – so that wasn’t even an option to get the computer working again. 

So I call the manufacturer and we walked through the same process again with the same predictable results.  Before we opened a service ticket, I asked the question:  If I send this in, will they retrieve my data before fixing the computer?

Of course not.  Ugh. 

That was enough to set my heart leaping in my chest and the beautiful beach day outside our camper was lost on me.  I started frantically calling local computer places and found one that would actually come out to where we were vacationing.  Geek To You out of Newmarket New Hampshire. 

#5 – Shop around for the best deal – both in computer repair and for external backup drives.

I now need something to back the data up for when my Geek savior arrives and I ran out to by a zip drive.  The local drug store only has a 4 gig drive – not nearly big enough and the nice guy helping us suggests I go to Best Buy or Staples because I can get a bigger drive for half the price of the things on his shelf.   Nice kid.   Longer drive to these store than around the corner, but I took it and got a stellar deal on an external drive – one that’s bigger than my computer – it could back up mine and my kids net books without issue. 

#6 – Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

I got back to our camp and plug the external drive in, hoping it would work without an operating system after all – the box says just plug in. . . 

Ok – I don’t know what I expected, but the external drive operated off windows, duh – and my system still didn’t recognize the operating system. 

I know, not so bright, my Pollyanna view tarnished when  nothing happened and I was forced to wait for the Geek team to show up. 

In order to keep the frantic thoughts at bay, I spent the afternoon on the beach reading one of Lisa McMahon’s books – FADE.  Nice short beach read and it kept me occupied. 

#7 – Sometimes patience pays off.

Well – Geek man showed up and after an hour of fiddling with the hard drive, he hadn’t been able to recover the data.  Blackness overcame me and I almost cried, but alas, he was willing to take it back to his shop and try some other avenues that he thought might be successful – and a bonus, he said he’d drop it off on Sunday before we left for home. 

Saturday came and went and I didn’t harp on the lack of a phone call – no with the beach beckoning and the cook out with the neighbors. 

Sunday morning, the phone rang with precarious news.  None of his regular avenues was able to recover my data.  I momentarily mourned the loss of my stuff and then he gave me a ray of hope.  He did find a diagnostic program that was currently running that MAY get it back – but it had already been running for eight hours and it was only through a small fraction of the drive.  Did I want to kill the program and get the computer back or let it ride and he’d mail the sucker back to me once it was done? 

Torn, I had to consider costs.  What was the data I lost worth and what were his charges?  I really didn’t want to get hit with a whopping bill – especially since the netbook had been very reasonable when I bought it. 

After a brief conversation on cost – and a very reasonable price tag attached if he was able to get the data back, I decided on waiting the program out.   In other words, I had a rare moment of instituting patience into my reaction.      

Long story short – On Tuesday I got word that the data recovery was successful!  Talk about relief.  I had gotten myself to the point where I was resigned to have lost the additions to my computer since the end of June. 

And now I had it all back. 

The moral of this long and winding story?

#8 – Back up your data – daily.  This is probably the most important lesson within this post!

If you’re in the states, particularly the Northeast, and need to get your data back  - I’d suggest Geek To You out of Newmarket.  They have a cap on data recovery costs and in my case, that cap was well worth it.   

I’m still waiting for the computer to come back from the manufacturer.  We’ll see if it’s got all my software in tact when it comes back, otherwise I’ve got a couple days worth of downloads to do to get it back into shape before I can restore my data. 

Thanks for hanging with me for a bit today! 

JET

“Uncle Ed’s Lap” by Parker Ford

For a woman with only a few books under her belt, Parker Ford has shown great maturity in her handling of a potentially taboo subject: a deep attraction between a young woman and her late aunt’s widower. Her uncle by marriage, not by blood.

I was instantly drawn into this story. Fiona is a passionate and believable character, notable as much for her empathy, loyalty and sensitivity as for her gorgeous looks. As a reader I was touched by her struggle to reconcile the suddenly transitory nature of her life, and of life in general.

In her uncle Ed, Fiona has a man to suit every part of the woman she is and will be. She’s known him forever, had a crush on him for years. He’s a father, a protector, a provider, and despite the taboo nature of it, he very soon becomes a lover. The scene where Ed first transitions from protector to lover is beautifully created and very deftly crafted. Ms. Ford doesn’t shy away from the difficulties a relationship of this nature presents, which serves only to make the characters, and the situation, more tangible and poignant.

Fiona, for all her goodness, is still a very young woman, and prone to child-like extremes in behaviour. Petty jealousy and sweeping love, one usually feeding from the other. This girl can scratch like a cougar, can spit venom like a cobra. In turn, she often shows a strong need to be steered, to be instructed…even dominated. To be fathered.

But it’s Ed’s tenuous grasp of his self-control which is a revelation. As an older man, someone who has obvious but understated pride in his own strength, his attraction to Fiona is hard for him to accept. When the attraction turns physical, Ed’s guilt, though directed inwards, still manifests in his behaviour. He has flashes of petulance, as if trying to regress to an age where their love would feel appropriate to him.

There are scenes in this story so touching that I found myself on the verge of tears. In public. Some lines are blurred, some lines are crossed. To describe those scenes in isolation would render them powerless, would dilute the story for any potential readers.

It’s a small percentage of women who know how men work. They can drive one around, repair him if he’s broken, and breaking a man isn’t hard to do. Most women have the ability to wield words like they’re hammers. With “Uncle Ed’s Lap”, Parker Ford shows that she understands young women, but more importantly, she shows clearly that she knows older men.

As for the sex? There is plenty. And it’s all damn good. Though erotica is still mostly a female genre, I can assure you that with “Uncle Ed’s Lap”, this man feels that Parker Ford has…set the bar high.

I found Ms. Ford’s writing to have a similar effect on me as Elmore Leonard’s does. Which is not to say the writing is similar in nature. It’s about me as a reader more than it is about either writer. As with most of Leonard’s work, this story seemed to tear itself from the page and leap, legs akimbo, straight into my mind. And it was welcome to do so.

Yes, I know it is not quite fall yet, but in my house with two middle school age boys, football practices and scrimmages begin in early August! We have a total of 4 hours each day of practices, plus pre-season football games on the TV, and lots of throwing the ball with dad in the backyard. Come next week, practices after school will have one son on the field each day from 3-5 and the other from 6-8. Now, could that be any more convenient? At least homework help when needed is one on one

Yet, for me football season means lots of time to read mostly as I am tired of apologizing for not being a sports person. When games are on TV, I cook or read. I go to all of my kids games that I can, it is just that I sit there sweating and wondering what everyone is so upset about. I mean really upset about! *shakes head* My husband has tried to explain it all to me, but something in my head just does not click. Football, hmm what comes to my mind is the heat, smelly uniforms to wash, oh and Emma Hillman’s Location, Location, Location story. LOL Yeah, you can see where my mind goes. Back to the books. Does that make me a nerd?

So, football, I thought, this year lets have some fun with it. Seems lots of online sites are.
How about http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Hottest-Hunks-of-the-NFL , or http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/dating-advice/dating-tips-from-football-players , or http://www.stilettosetsports.com/best-dressed-nfl-players/ !

Maybe this year while my guys are gobbling up game food in from of the Browns games, I married a man who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, I should set my mind to writing a hot football romance of my own. Hmmm, what exactly could happen with a football or in a locker room? Got any ideas for me? It does build quite the body!

My cat dragged me out of bed this morning because he was hungry.  He has tactics.  First he just talks.  He can say, “Myrwa, myrwa”,” which can mean a lot of different things, and I’ve definitely heard a “Meow!”   And call me crazy but I’m quite certain he’s said, “Mama”.  When talking doesn’t work, he climbs on me.  Then he climbs up on the dresser and tries to knock the jewelry boxes off of it.  Finally, he goes to his last resort – he jumps down and heads for the small garbage can lined with a plastic bag.  He starts gnawing on the plastic.  Little fucker!  So, I’m up after only six hours of sleep.  He ate and then took a shit for himself.  Started running all over the place in his triumph.  I’m still a little dead to the world so bear with me.

My morning routine consists of coffee and oatmeal and catching the tail end of The Today Show  and waiting for the mail.  My Elle subscription just kicked in!  They sent me both the August and September issues.  I’m more of a Harper’s Bazaar girl – and W and Vogue.  But Elle only costs $8 or $9 for the entire year.  Such a great deal.

Drew Barrymore is on the cover of the August issue.  She’s never looked prettier I think.  If they were casting a movie of my life she’d be the perfect Mia Natasha.  I think we’re the same height and have a similar build, I guess, similar style, but that’s about it.  We don’t look alike.  They can make her look like me, that’s not a big deal.  Needless to say, a movie of my life would be rather uneventful so it wouldn’t require acting chops or anything.  It would be more like a romantic comedy.  And she’s so good at those, whether she wants to continue making them or not.

The thing I love the most about her right now is that she reached into her depth of character recently for her role in Grey Gardens.  Previously she’d only wanted to be this happy-positive-life-is-only-the-good-stuff person, even though she’d experienced a lot of darkness as a child.  It’s great that she’s finally accepting that aspect of her reality, makes me appreciate her so much more.   I had a happy childhood with parents who love eachother and all that.  I have had my share of existential angst, though not of the magnitude of other people, and I’ve dealt with the cruel pain of unrequited love far too often.  So, I guess someone could craft a screenplay out of that. 

The male lead in a movie about me would be played by Brandon Routh, naturally.  (I have a Superman-type guy in my life.)  And my parents could play themselves.  No, they’re not actors but they’d make two hell-great reality stars.

If someone wanted to make a movie out of Cinderella Club, I think Rachel Bilson would make a good Miller Smytheson.  Of course, if it were a porn film, I’m sure they could find a girl equally talented and pretty for the role.  I just don’t know any of their names.  There really isn’t an equivalent for Thomas Roslyn, I don’t think.  He’s just a dream man I made up with the best parts of men I’ve known and men I’d like to know.

The funny thing about Elle is that I kind of think I can shop my own closet for most of the new trends.  They’re really pushing fur and leather.  Shearling, Mongolian lamb, calf skin – oh and fur vests.  Marc Jacobs has created the most exquisite designs for Louis Vuitton.  Dior New Look-style full skirts paired with Madonna corset tops in a dress but made of menswear wools.  It is seriously breathtakingly beautiful to look at these pictures.  Me-likey sooooo much.  It’s so weird to think of fur and wool and sweaters and leather boots when the weather is still ridiculously warm – but fall clothes remind me of back-to-school shopping.  And that reminds me of the future.  I’m like that.  I live for the future, for a certain point in time that keeps me motivated to continue my freakish pace, my almost non-sensical work ethic.

Now that Cinderella Club has been out for a week, I feel like I need to move on to some other future point in time.  Because J.E. Taylor had said the book launch would be anti-climatic.  It was, she was right.  It was happening, yet it was also a weird nothingness.  I’ve taken a break from writing the sequel.  I’m trying to figure out what’s really next for me.  Creating a new series of paintings?  Going shopping for beautiful new clothes that I don’t really need/don’t have money to buy?  Sit and read my magazines cover-to-cover?  Or maybe I should do what my cat is doing.  He’s curled up next to me and fallen asleep.  It’s not quite afternoon yet, maybe this night owl will do just that, get back into bed and dream about the future.

Howdy, this is Gavin your friendly Excessica publicist with the releases for 08/13/10!  It’s time for a summer vacation, isn’t it?  How about France?  Start off in Paris with Selena Kitt’s short story of a business woman’s exciting new romance in the City of Light.  Then we’re in for some scorching BDSM when Alex Jordaine brings us to the South of France to the sexiest nude resort in the world!  After we’ve had our fill of France, we can see what’s going on in D.B. Story’s latest sci fi romance set in his world of robots or spend some time having hot and heavy fun with a gorgeous marine in Barrie Abalard’s sensual new story.  Have a great week!

eXcessica new releases

French Lessons

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (4,967 words)

Category: Contemporary, Romance

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

Celia is in Paris trying to acclimate while she explores “green building” for her American company. She meets Ronan, a true Frenchman, and gets an up close and personal lesson in the French language…and love.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex.

Naked Submission

By Alex Jordaine

www.excessica.com

Length: Novella (43,155 words)

Category: BDSM

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HEA

Price: $4.99

BUY IT!

Cap de Berg in the South of France is a nudist resort. But it is not just any nudist resort. It is the biggest, sexiest, kinkiest nudist resort in the world. It’s a paradise for persons of a deviant disposition. But there is trouble in paradise.

Meanwhile spirited slave Rhoda switches from sub to domme and in the process becomes seriously smitten with a delectable novice sex slave called Laurent. But Rhoda has to leave the country soon, so can there be any real future for her and Laurent? And will Caroline ever let up on poor benighted Paul – and if she does, will it only be to ditch him altogether in favor of the highly seductive Sarah?

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, m/m sex, strap-on anal sex, domination, bondage and sadomasochism.

Semper Fi

By Barrie Abalard

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (10,400 words)

Category: Contemporary Erotic Romance, Menage M/F/F

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

In this uncertain world full of lies and deceit, who doesn’t long for a mate that embodies solid values? Who doesn’t want a friend you can trust?

Semper Fi, all about finding faithfulness and friendship in our uncertain world, reassures us that values still matter.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, menage/group (M/F/F) sex, oral sex (F/F and M/F), masturbation, threat of a spanking (one swat).

Pickup at the Robot Club: Bethany/Tamarind

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (20,100)

Category: Sci Fi/Romance

Firebolt Level: 3

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Pickup at the Robot Club takes place in the dark days soon after The Emancipation of the Robots where the survival of the Robot species was placed in serious jeopardy by the new rules of banned behavior that were inflicted on both the Humans and the Robots. As any intelligent being will do when faced with the need to survive, illicit assignations existed for those daring enough to seek them out. Sometimes someone comes along seeking the rarest find of all. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 2, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This book contains sex with robots including coerced sex.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

I’ve never been the most trusting person in the world. In fact, I’m one of those casually-paranoid people who figures everyone’s out to get her in one way or another. It takes me a long time to become friends with anybody. Most people find me stand-offish until they really get to know me. I do test the waters with new acquaintances. It takes time to trust.

So, now that you know something deeply personal about me, I’m going to switch gears–sort of–to talk about home decor. Yes, that’s right, home decor with the armoires and the cushions and the HOYVIN-GLAVIN! (Sorry, just having a Professor Frink moment, there)

The very first time my girlfriend Sweet came to my apartment, she said (and I quote), “You know, if you moved the couch under the window and the TV unit against that wall, you could put your bookshelf over there and create a little reading nook with that chair.”

And I said, “Uh-huh…yeah, thanks for the advice. Now shut up and kiss me!” (Okay, that one was not a direct quote. I don’t remember what I said.)

I didn’t think I’d end up taking Sweet’s decor advice. It didn’t sound like it was going to work. If I moved the couch under the window, it would block my heating vents. And put a bookcase in the middle of the room? The more I thought about it, the stupider her idea sounded. Want to know why?

Because I’m a person who sees only obstacles. That’s it. My whole world is comprised of one obstacle after the next. That’s not necessarily a bad thing…unless you couple my obstacle-seeing characteristic with my “screw that” tendency. It’s fine if you see an obstacle and plan a way to overcome it. I don’t do that. I see the obstacle and I say, “Screw that. It’ll be too hard. It won’t work. There’s no point.”

But now that I’ve realized these things about myself, I can work at improving. That’s what life’s all about, right? Learning and growing and improving. So I took Sweet’s advice. I moved all my furniture around, adjusting for foreseen obstacles, and you know what? She was right! My living room looks amazing now.

Thus, we come full circle to trust. It is damn hard to trust people–for me. I don’t know if it is for you. And trusting Sweet’s home decor vision was akin to trusting her. In fact, it was a segment of trust, a little trust that makes up part of trust as a whole. The reason I didn’t hop right to taking her advise about my living room was that I couldn’t blindly trust that she knew what she was talking about. Seeing was believing, for me.

Now I’m filled with a sense of weathered awe as I see her vision fulfilled in my home. It makes me happy. It’s like a piece of her mind is living in my…living room–hey, neat! I trust her decor sense. Next victim is the bedroom. She’s got a vision for that as well.

Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

[An Aside: I agonized over the posting of this. I was going to alter it again. I was going to post it...not post it...post it...not post it. I am rarely outspoken, confrontational or aggressive. I worry entirely too much whether people like me or if I am 'allowed' to feel the way I do.  After much round and round the mulberry bush with the man I decided a) I don't care (if you like me) and b) I am allowed to feel thusly. If the original blog was okay to post, then a respectful response is okay. Ahem...])

I wrote today’s long ass blog to respond to this long ass Oh Get A Grip blog from yesterday. The OGAG blog really sort of rubbed me the wrong way. You know, like a coat made out of rusty nails and tacks and bits of glass might.

But here I sit severely editing myself. I don’t need to explain why horrible zingers like “The Allison’s Wonderland book represents a certain kind of erotica, sort of the equivalent of Top Forty radio. It’s commercial erotica, sexy, descriptive, slickly produced but not too challenging…” irk me. I’ll leave it to my clever readers to read the offending blog and then my (might I say again as I am so proud of my restraint) severely edited response. I won’t even go into how the wrong editor is referred to for the book being mentioned. Or that that was never amended but for in the comment section.

I felt a lot of things upon reading the OGAG blog, but overall I felt a pervasive sadness to what is the equivalent of in-fighting. Had the blog been “we are all different but great, look at how many groovy flavors of writing there are” that would have been one thing. But if you read carefully the whole scenario wasn’t presented that way at all. Erotica, as a genre, has introduced me to some of the most amazing and welcoming and talented people, but once in a while there is someone who does the old “us and them” routine. Camps. Cool kids vs. dweebs. The haves and the have nots. The literary and the commercial. It pissed me off in high school and it pisses me off now. And it is operating under the assumption that my whole body of work is represented by one story. Or that said story is somehow flawed because it can be labeled “commercial”.

Bottom line: Do you judge a book by its scene? Will you declare a book not worthy of your time if it’s not chock full of authors you already cherish? Is there no room for undiscovered or the young blood? Do we only want to hear the Claptons and ignore the Davy Knowles of the world? Are we going to write someone or their work off because of a label?

Some of my favorite authors have been discovered by accident. In random books I’ve picked up. By seeing them in books alongside writers I already knew and liked. And I have to say as a writer, I’d hope you’d give me that chance. I hope you’d risk reading me if I were in there smashed up against the beloved writers of your established scene. Or maybe you’d take a chance on a slightly different scene and see what it has to offer you. That’s what diversity is all about, a popular theme of the sixties if I recall correctly.

So now the floor is open. I want to hear what you think if you want to tell me. I’ve had my say and I’d love to hear the input of my fellow writers.

[Author's note: as for all the books titled at the end that apparently all the cool kids hang in~ I find it pretty amusing, and yes--you caught me--satisfying, that I've been in a good number of them. Did I mention that this blog response is highly edited? I did? Damn]

Can you believe it’s already August? Where’d the summer go? Before you know it we’ll be getting the kids ready for school and scrambling to PTA meetings and planning Halloween parties and preparing for Christmas.

Well, my debut Dark Reckoning and my erotic debut Survival Games rollouts in July came and went. I blogged like a mad woman and it seems to have drummed up interest for Dark Reckoning – not New York Times interest, but enough to know it wasn’t just family and friends that bought it. Of course this is just on the paperback side of things. I have no clue what’s happening with the e-book or any hint of what’s up with Survival Games until quarter end, but I’m hoping that all this crazy promotion drums up more interest. All I can hope for is that word gets out. . . and maybe that Oprah picks one of them up.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to publish my short stories out on Smashwords. Some of which I wish I could sell for less, but the minimum price over there is $0.99. I only put them up this week and I’ve already sold three without any advertising.

Well, uploading these things wasn’t as easy as I thought. You’d think after all the formatting I do for eXcessica, that the first uploads of the books would be clean. LOL – not so much. I have a space here before a paragraph and extra spaces before carriage returns there. Just a handful – but enough to raise their flags and send the book back to me for corrections. And one of the covers was too small. All easily fixed and reloaded.

Creating the cover art was a lot of fun too. I downloaded a slew of free fonts and I’ve been picture mining over at 123RF and found some stellar covers to use that really capture the essence of my stories. Looking for just the “right” one takes a while – but who doesn’t like to look at great photography and art.
Here are the covers I’ve put together for the short stories. I’m just learning how to enhance fonts and such – so they aren’t what I’d call fancy. Which one do YOU like best?

I don’t know if you folks are aware of this or not but I do interviews on my blog on Friday’s. I’ve had Selena over and later in August, I’ve got Mia Natasha, so if anyone is interested in swinging in some Friday for an interview – I’ve got openings on the 27th and then again in September. Shoot me an email at JET75@JETaylor75.com and I’ll hook you up!
And on that note, I’m going to bid you all a great week and get back to polishing my craft.
Ciao!
JET

Hi, this is Gavin, your friendly Excessica publicist with our releases for 08/06/10!  This week we have an epic BDSM romance from Mia Natasha, a collection of erotic shorts from renowned author Saskia Walker, a red hot erotic horror piece from Selena Kitt that explores what happens when a young woman hitches a ride into a small town, and the latest fembot romance from D.B. Story.  Have a great week!

eXcessica new releases

The Ride

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (9,528 words)

Category: Erotic Horror/Paranormal

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Annabelle hitches a ride from a stranger in a small town, where every day is the same. She longs for adventure and is looking to get out to find it…but it turns out that, even in the backwoods, nothing is as it seems after all…

Note: This story originally appeared in the anthology Shivers

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, sex, and erotic horror.

Lindsey’s Story

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (11,320 words)

Category: Sci Fi, Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Lindsey’s Story tells the touching tale of a young fembot designed for a life as a throwaway toy in a society that expects nothing more for her. Can she possibly get lucky enough to find an owner who sees more in her than that? (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings:This book contains sex with robots

Unashamed

By Saskia Walker

www.excessica.com

Length: Novel Length (58,407 words)

Category: Erotica, Short Story Collection

Firebolt Level:  5

Excess Level: 3

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $5.99

BUY IT!

Let Saskia Walker take you on an erotic journey of discovery with eighteen red hot stories of love, lust, and blatant seduction. Titillating, tantalizing, and totally explicit, Unashamed delivers diverse sexual scenarios from first love explorations to forbidden rendezvous, raunchy threesomes to playful committed couples. The characters in these stories revel in their sexuality—with delicious and climactic results.

“Walker is one of the best erotic writers, period….talent, Eros and magic combine on each page of her writing.” Violet Blue

ALSO AVAILABLE IN PRINT

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

Cinderella Club

By Mia Natasha

www.excessica.com

Length: Super XL Novel (154,299 words)

Category: BDSM, Romance

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HEA

Price: $7.99

BUY IT!

Twenty-eight-year-old Miller Smytheson has always had a secret aspiration: to experience rapacious intercourse through bondage play. She represses her fantasies and submits to the role of the good girl and responsible daughter to her father, William, by working with him at The Tiger’s Eye, a gallery specializing in erotic art.

Will she submit to a life with one beautiful man or another? And will she make the correct decision? Through sexual capture Miller seeks her True Master and attempts to ensnare her happily ever after in the process.

ALSO AVAILABLE IN PRINT

Warnings: This story contains non-consensual sex acts, anal, oral, bodily functions, group sex, beating, tattooing, piercing.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

A month ago, I blogged about one of the variegated reasons why I don’t exactly churn out book after book. In that case, it was a discussion of trying to pursue music as well as writing.

Well, a music career is nothing compared to having kids. Any parent will tell you that.

My younger son is about to turn 7. Apologies to any Leos out there, but Mattie is a FUCKING Leo. Like the prototype for all Leos. If he could have attention 37 hours a day, he’d take it. Again, not so groundbreaking.

But where the bulk of my time-drought comes from is my elder son. Lachlan is 11 years old, and he’s severely intellectually-impaired. Global development delays. He can talk, he can walk, he can shovel food in his mouth. But he struggles with simple things like getting dressed and toilet time. Can hardly read or write. Can’t even load his toothpaste on a brush. So he needs his parents, and lately even his little brother, to do a lot of these things for him.

So he’s a high-needs kid. There’s no way around it. He’ll never be independent. As I wrote in a story once, about this very thing: “This is our life, until it ends.” I’m 6’ tall and 200 pounds, but that’s a concept that sometimes is heavier than I can bear. On more than one occasion I’ve been overcome at my day job and had to lock myself in the men’s toilets to have a bit of a blub about it. Because he’s my son. And I’m a man. And I can’t fix him.

For various reasons, I can’t count on my parents for any help in this regard. The family I came from was broken long before it split. It was held together like a fractured jaw, all wired up and grinding. So you find your help elsewhere, and you build a different kind of family.

I always know I can count on my wife. And she can count on me. Lately, though, I’ve found that eXcessica has a few rocks out there for a drowning man to cling to as well. For her acute ear and wicked sense of humour, I just wanted to give a shout out to the very smokin’ Sommer Marsden. Woman writes like a demon, loves filthy music, has incredible intuition and still has time to listen to a man half a world away when he’s having a hard time.

Thanks, Sommer. You rock.

My Salem Adventure proved to be just that, an adventure. I definitely got more than I had even hoped for in the not-as-tiny-as-I-thought tourist trap. I went after a more Hidden Salem looking for stories, and found it. Talking to the natives helps

I now have a novel, and possible sequel mapped out. I bought a nice stack of book to help with the research, and now just need the kids to go back to school so I can write it! LOL

Not sure what us witches conjured up there, but our Haunted Footsteps tour gave us some interesting Burying Point pictures. I have heard all of the explanations on Orbs showing in photographs now. But, I can tell you that my camera and my friends were the only ones to capture any that night. *cue creepy music* Did they know I was searching for them? What do you think they are, dust particles or spirits of the dead?

Computers have enabled people to make more mistakes faster than almost any invention in history, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns. CARL GUNDLACH

I saw this quote on the BBC website the other day and it made me laugh, a lot. How true it is, and I had to chuckle as I recalled how often I had made mistakes via my computer.

When I stopped laughing, I then thought back over the years I’ve been using a PC and how my life is enhanced and enabled by it. It might help me make a fool of myself, but I wouldn’t be without it!

As a result, I designated today hug-my-computer day. Join me, and give your computer a hug. (And maybe they won’t let us send out any more mistakes if we do

Hugs
Saskia
UNASHAMED, coming very soon from eXcessica
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/home.html
http://www.saskiawalker.blogspot.com/

Thank you, and you, and you, and all of you who have helped to make this experience such a phenomenal one for me.  I’m nobody.  But you made me feel like I was a part of this community of writers, without having read a single thing I’d written.  You gave me encouragement and gave me the courage to believe in myself.  I’m sorry – too sappy?

Pardon me, but I’ve been involved in a Lost-a-thon, and I’ve cried like every other episode.  It’s that whole -we’re in this together, you are not alone, we all have set-backs but we can start over – stuff.  Makes you think you can meet a challenge head-on and conquer it, conquer anything, as long as you have support. 

If I was on that island, I’d probably make environmental art, crop circles would be fun in the tall grass or maybe I could learn to sculpt sand castles.  I’d tell stories around the campfire or make-up silly word games.  Of couse, I’d need listeners for that, and players.  I’d love it if  paper and pencils and pens existed in abundance, because I could sit around all day writing or drawing.  And I’d definitely hook up with the blonde guy.  Are his eyes really that blue or is that a trick of the camera?  Why don’t they make him walk around naked more?  He kissed Kate and there was a lot of tongue on his end.  Nice. 

I’d watched the series finale and had viewed some of it sporadically, and I can safely say that this is the BEST way to watch it.  Like a maniac swallowing it up.  I’m almost done with season 1.  Who is this Boone kid?  He is beautiful!  I don’t remember seeing him at the end.  Does that mean he dies gruesomely?  Don’t tell me!  Anyhow, I just love how all the characters are all connected to each other, like they found each other finally, in death.

I’m glad I didn’t have to wait that long to find all of you.  You saved my life in a way, because now – well, it’s more than you can know.

Cinderella Club will be available for sale starting Friday.  Here’s one of my favorite parts.

Love isn’t easy. We all know that.

In a committed relationship with a long-term partner, we know there are ups and downs. There are days when we’re madly in love, there are days of ambivalence, and there are even those days of anger and frustration.

Of course, everybody’s love life is different, but there are a number of commonalities. That’s how we can relate one to another.

So, here’s what’s on my mind today, relationship-wise: Sometimes my girlfriend Sweet and I have arguments. You got me! We do! And if you follow me on twitter, you already get to hear all about them. LOL

But there are some arguments, even some conversations, that are just too hard to handle. There are places you and I and she and everybody knows, “I just can’t go there.” There are some things you can’t talk about, even with the person closest to you. Maybe it’s just in the moment. Maybe the moment will last for years. Either way, as a partner, one must be respectful of the other’s wish for psychic and emotional space.

Sweet pushes me. Oh, does she ever! She has this constant need and desire to be right inside my head. I remember, after our very first date, thinking to myself, “Why does she need to know what I’m thinking at every moment?”

And now, finally, after all that build-up, I get to the topic of today’s musings:

I’m not a BDSM practitioner (sorry to disappoint) but I do know a lot of people who live the BDSM lifestyle or work as professionals in the community. You know one thing I admire most about BDSM practitioners? They have safewords.

Says Wikipedia,

A safeword is a codeword or series of codewords that are sometimes used in BDSM for a submissive (or “bottom“) to unambiguously communicate their physical or emotional state to a dominant (or “top“), typically when approaching, or crossing, a physical, emotional, or moral boundary. Some safewords are used to stop the scene outright, while others can communicate a willingness to continue, but at a reduced level of intensity.

So here’s my idea to save my sanity (and yours too, if you’re interested in retaining it): Emotional Safewords! A word partners can introduce when they arrive at a boundary in argument or conversation to bring the discussion to an immediate close.

Is it just me, or is this a kick-ass relationship idea? Is it juvenile? I need some feedback on this one. I shared the idea with Sweet, of course, and she looked at me funny before saying, “Sure, we can try it, but…” (The “but” part went on and on. I won’t bore you)

Sweet’s main concern is that I’ll overuse our safeword. And, hell, that’s a fair assessment on her part. I did mention she lives inside my head, right? She knows me pretty damn well. Even so, I think my emotional safeword idea deserves a chance.

“There’s a difference between discomfort and pain,” Sweet said at one point.

What comment could more perfectly draw us back to BDSM? Yes, there is a difference between discomfort and pain. That’s where trust comes into the conversation. BDSM play requires an incredible amount of trust. Romantic relationships involve an incredible amount of trust. In order for my emotional safeword idea to work, Sweet and I need to trust that neither will use the word unless we’re at a breaking point. It can’t be used frivolously.

So, it’s decided: I want to try out this emotional safeword idea and Sweet’s willing to give it a go. Now all we need is a WORD! Sweet pitched Rumpelstiltskin, but–sorry, babe–I don’t think so.

Many of this blog’s readers are writers too. You know lots of words, right? I’m in need. What should Sweet and I use as our emotional safeword?

Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Hi there, this is Gavin with Excessica’s releases for 7/30/10!   We’re making summer that much hotter with a volcanic BDSM romance novel from Selena Kitt that tells the story of the Greek goddess, Persephone.  Then Parker Ford’s heroine gets herself into a scorching love triangle with her husband and a gorgeous, oh-so-dominant interloper.  Eve Cassidy’s M/M story boils over when a breathtaking marine breaks all the rules with a rising superstar musician.  And don’t miss out on D.B. Story’s “Pygmalion-esque” adult romance where an inanimate figure might just become the woman of a man’s most passionate dreams.  Gosh, incredible releases, don’t you think?  I bet you want all of them!   Have a terrific week!

eXcessica new releases

The Surrender of Persephone (Series: Myths Behaving Badly)

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Novel (52,106 words)

Category: BDSM, Erotica, Fantasy, Mythology, Romance

Firebolt Level:  5!

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HEA

Price: $5.99

BUY IT!

Sheltered Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never gets to do anything— thanks to the suffocating love of her mother, Demeter. Sephie is being carefully groomed to follow in the footsteps of the two “virgin” goddesses, Athena and Artemis, and while they sure do have a lot of fun together, she longs for something deeper—and darker. When Aidon, the God of the Underworld—generally known as Hades—appears in his chariot to claim Persephone for his bride, the young goddess gets more than she wished for.

As she finally admits her own feelings, Persephone faces the looming specter of her history, which threatens to shatter the newly formed bonds between the couple. She must now face not only her past, but her present, and her future—no longer only the Goddess of Spring, but also as the wife of Aidon and Queen of the Underworld—and the choices she will be forced to make will change the world forever.

Warnings: This title contains f/f/f sex, bondage, spanking and branding.

Fiction

By Parker Ford

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (24,200 words)

Category: Erotica, Erotic Romance

Firebolt Level:  5!

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Julianne just wants that old spark back in her marriage. Her husband Logan is too preoccupied with making their business bloom. When she’s rebuffed one too many times she does some soul searching. Her search leads her accidentally to a very handsome man with a dominant streak a mile wide. Who wants her. Really wants her in a way that excites her to no end.

The ultimate question becomes will her affair with Max bring Julianne and Logan closer together or be the final straw in their struggling marriage?

Warnings: This book contains instances of m/m sex, menage, bondage, anal sex, corporal punishment and infidelity.

Don’t Tell

By Eve Cassidy

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (11,600 words)

Category: Gay Male

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

For Jeff Ward, keeping his sexual preference a secret from his platoon was of utmost importance. But being celibate was never in his plan. So when tension and frustration are at the breaking point he takes some advice and heads out of town for a quick chance to blow off steam.

Despite their differences, one song later both men realize some rules are meant to be broken, sudden lust can’t be denied and random encounters aren’t always as random as they seem…

Warnings: This title contains graphic and explicit language and m/m sex.

Still Life: Barbara

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (20,100)

Category: Fantasy, Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

In what might be called Adventures in Unreality, Still Life stories take place in a world very much like our own, the major difference being that occasionally an inanimate figure might come to life. Some people might say I’m writing in familiar Twilight Zone territory, but that name was already taken, and besides, this tale goes a fair bit beyond what The Twilight Zone was once able to show on television. The Pygmalion myth is several millennia old and has never gone out of style. In Still Life: Barbara, a tall man in a social club for vertically enhanced individuals meets a mysterious, equally statuesque, woman who intrigues him to the point of going out of his way to try and discover her secret before anyone else beats him to it. When he uncovers her not-quite-human past, which explains her virginal nature, he realizes he has himself the catch of a lifetime—provided he can adapt to a relationship unlike any other with this very special woman. It’s a delightful adult fantasy come to life.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

As some of you may or may not know, I decided to go back to school after being out of school for over fifteen years. Yep, to celebrate my fifteenth high school reunion I enrolled in a college for the first time. I know I must be crazy but a girl has to do what a girl has to do when the job market dries up.  So now I am a sophomore at the International Academy of Design and Technology, pursuing my degree in Web Design and Development.  Everything has been going great. I love my classes, my teachers and even the idea of taking online classes. (Nothing better than going to school in your pjs!)

Anyway since IADT is a general education college, I have to not only complete my major specific classes like 3D Animation and Design, I also have to complete gen ed classes such as College Alegrbra, Ethics and English Composition.  You read right – I actually am taking English Composition I.  Here I thought with the fact I’m a writer, I wouldn’t have an issue with this class. It should be a breeze.  Writing comes easily to me, so this class should be a no-brainer, that’s what I told myself.

Boy was I wrong. My first clue should have been one of the text books I received for my class: Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker. I opened the darn thing up and it’s a freaking grammar book.  I figured it was just a reference book for the class, until I got the syllabus. I have to read the darn thing cover to cover by the end of my five week class. I not only have to read it all, there’s a grammar test every week too.  I figured okay, I can handle this – until my first class.  My teacher skimmed over the first six chapters (all of which are about clarity) in less than thirty five minutes. Evidently at the college level they expect you to know grammar inside and out.  I don’t know about you but it’s been over twenty plus years since I took grammar in seventh grade.  I can’t remember the difference dangling modifiers and split infinitives, let alone all the labels for the parts of speech.  So as my teacher is rattling on about how this word is supposed to be modifying this word and that the word “that” is necessary in most cases for clarification, my heads swimming as I tried to remember what my seventh grade language arts teacher taught me about labeling and diagramming sentences. It was like being in a room full of doctors who were speaking in advanced medical terms, while  trying to decide on a diagnosis.

So after spending the first class in a state of confusion, where I only understood about every other word, I decided I probably should email my teacher to let her know that I suffer from severe dyslexia, so she is aware of the problem and find myself a tutor who doesn’t mind giving me a crash course in remedial English. Good thing I have a good friend that is a retired teacher. She graciously volunteered to be the one to pound into my thick head the basic rules of grammar – despite the fact that I think English is the screwiest freaking language out there. Wish me luck because I am going to need it to pass this class.

Hung
 How they write that well in that short amount of time…baffles me. I am truly green with envy. And there’s a bit of lust there too, strictly for Ray, of course.

Eat, Pray, Love
Have to say. I loved, loved, loved this book. It’s one of those books I’m buying to give to people. Thrusting my happiness with this particular tome onto them. Oh well, if you have to thrust something…it should be happiness…

Sharp Objects
Gave me the writer-girl equivalent of penis envy. Gillian Flynn is a master of this tiny dark-girls/women crime genre, I think.

Promise Not to Tell
And sharing Gillian Flynn’s mastery is Jennifer McMahon

Monk
Possibly one of the most brilliant, funny, odd, strange, wonderful and maddening characters written. Ever. Gosh, I wish he’d been my idea.

Psych
Ditto above but add all things 80s reference, fake psychics, awesome sidekicks, little blue cars and Corbin Bernsen. Ole!

Deeper
I know I’ve mentioned this book a few times, but that should tell you something. It’s still in my head after about a year. That’s all a writer can ask for! And I hear there may be a Deeper sequel. Dare I tremble with anticipation?

Black Dust Mambo
Reading this now. Already in love with the boy. The girl. The best friend!

Pet Sematary
Rereading this right now. This book scared the shit out of me when I was 13 and is the center of one of the funniest stories of my life. I love it. And duh…it’s Stephen King.

Fablehaven
This is one of those books I got and read to see if the kidlets might like it and I got sucked in. And then the man got sucked in. And then it was just a brawl to see who got to read the new book first when it came out.

Fight Club
If you’ve read it, you’ll know why I wish I wrote it.

Where the Sidewalk Ends
And finally, Shel. I cannot tell you how many childhood hours I wiled away reciting, reading and gazing at his books. Love, love, love. I plan to give a Shel Silverstein book to every single kid and/or adult who enters my life who needs some magic and joy

And finally…the thirteenth thing I wish I’d written…the book I’m working on right now! So I guess I should get back to that now.

I’d love to hear some of your list of things you wish you’d written. Things that inspire, move and entertain.

XOXO
Sommer

I haven’t gotten a lick of writing done in weeks and I’m feeling some withdrawal effects.
I’m not counting blogs or contest entry sheets in this dry spell, because those have been abundant.
What have I been doing with my time? Good question.
My day job ramped up – so I don’t have the extra time to jot a few lines down at lunch like I used to and my evenings have been packed with carting my kids around to summer activities. When I’m not in the car or cheering from the sidelines, I’m buried in manuscript formatting and reading submissions for both RWA contest entries and Allegory.
The brew-ha of marketing has taken up the remainder of my free time.
Needless to say, I’m exhausted and bummed that I haven’t written any fiction.
I did edit Vengeance and did some work on the cover for it as well as putting together a preliminary trailer for Mind Games. So I’ve done some creative work, but nothing in the realm of writing – not the prolific way I used to write anyway. I still have four books to clean up after Vengeance but I can’t seem to carve time out of my schedule to get to it.
My husband asked me what have I written lately and I said nada. Nothing. At least not anything new.
It seems that now that I’m published, I have less time to devote to just writing. Sorry for whining a little, it’s just that I’m not having success at managing my time lately and it is getting to me.
Am I the only one that is facing this obstacle?
Any words of wisdom to help get that groove back?

Hello, this is Gavin your friendly Excessica publicist with the releases for 07/23/10!  Why not take a break from the summer heat with a cool glass of lemonade and one of this week’s romances?  Discover a Greek god’s love in Isabel Rose’s new novella.  Go back to school and meet the right guy in Selena Kitt’s new offering or treat yourself to D.B. Story’s latest fembot story.  If you’re in the mood for something that will burn up your e-reader, Cherry Lee’s new BDSM release will definitely fit the bill.

Say, did you miss Lisa Bradley’s The Proposition?  It received rave review after rave review!  I hope you check it out!

Have a wonderful week!

eXcessica new releases

Kennel Time

By Cherry Lee

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (21,900 words)

Category: BDSM, Contemporary

Firebolt Level:  5!

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HFN

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Sometimes a girl just needs a little petting…and maybe a spanking with a rolled up newspaper.

The two engage in some serious master/pet role playing and Sabrina’s inhibitions and stress evaporate under Brian’s command. She comes to crave the release his training gives her. But when they attend an extreme erotic party, Sabrina sees herself with fresh eyes and begins to question the role she has so easily accepted. Can she balance her real world persona with her desire to be caged and humiliated?

Warnings: This title contains puppy play, tail plugs, whipping, discipline, caging, and much doggy-style sex.

My Working Weekend

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (7,900 words)

Category: Science Fiction, Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

My Working Weekend tells the story of an overworked executive who learns what it means to be set up by his boss and his boss’s lovely fembot assistant. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots.

The Laurel

By Isabel Rose

www.excessica.com

Length: Novella (46,878 words)

Category: Romance, Fantasy

Firebolt Level:  1

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HFN

Price: $4.99

BUY IT!

In The Laurel, the gods and the immortals interplay, and both will learn a valuable lesson about love and life, a lesson that will forever be told. Zeus, after bedding and impregnating the fair Titaness Leto, becomes father to twins: Apollo and Artemis. Unlike his other “bastard” children, Apollo and Artemis are made into gods, an event which will set the course for the rest of the story. Artemis has never forgotten the heartache that her mother suffered at the hands of her father Zeus, and as such, she wishes to leave a solitary life, away from men and love and relationships. Though she stands firm in her conviction, moments bubble up in her that are full of yearning. Apollo, who has never been seen without a smile on his face, is much more fanciful and wanting than Artemis. He wants love, and he wants it in a big way. Having loved and lost love, Apollo believes he has found it again with the beautiful nymph, Daphne. He quickly learns, however, that she has made a vow to celibacy. But that doesn’t matter to Apollo; his love for her is so profound that he asks her to be his companion, to live with him just so that he can be near her. Apollo’s lifelong wish is about to come true, but people on the fringes of his life have other plans. Those plans not only thwart what could be the love of a lifetime for Apollo, but it also will be the catalyst to which both gods and mortals will learn how much one should love, how much one should consider the feelings of the one loved.

Warnings: This story contains graphic love scenes, bisexual characters and a masturbation scene.

A Different Angle

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (12,243 words)

Category: Contemporary, Romance

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Tomboy mechanic Cat has fixed up a classic 1978 Chevy Nova in the school shop, but unless she passes her classes to get into a prestigious college, her stepfather, Ted, won’t let her drive it. Unfortunately, math is not Cat’s subject, but while her stepfather hopes David, the older, British tutor he finds for her, will help her find a way to navigate geometry, Cat finds herself wishing he would teach her something much more interesting.

Note: This story originally appeared in the anthology Coming Together V3

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and anal sex.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

To slightly misquote a great Australian band from the 1970’s…”Romance…is not a…dirty word!”

I recognise that a lot of romance fiction is written by good, even excellent writers. I admire their ability to find sexy euphemisms, for instance, and the stories of that genre are easy to read.

So why is it that I generally eschew that genre? It’s not, as I hinted, a dirty word. It’s just…not often captivating for me. I recognise that, if there is a problem, then the problem is mine and not the writers’. I just like stories with an honest darkness about them. Realistic evil, the kind that seeps into an antagonist’s blood for years before the writer introduces us to him.

I know I’m not alone in finding Hannibal Lechter to be the most frightening individual ever to have graced the screen. Why? For me, it’s partly his everyman status. No fangs, no rotting skin, no piercings. You could walk past him a hundred times and he wouldn’t kill you once. But cross swords with him, and it’s lights out. It’s also his fearsome intellect, the feeling that no matter how deftly you tried to evade the man, he would be several steps ahead of you.

These kinds of characters are, let’s face it, sexy. Damn sexy. They are in possession of many characteristics that we laud in others. They’re confident, driven, ruthless, hard-working. And they’re often handy with tools.

And they do it for me. Even outside of erotica, these are the characters I love to read. I love to read how they fuck. But mostly, I love to read why they fuck. Because even vanilla sex can be among the most intense of human interactions. So sex with someone who lacks conscience, or is planning a murder, or is having a final conjugal visit before a trip to the gas chamber…it just makes for a much more interesting read.

Am I alone on this? Do you want the good egg or the bad seed? If you remember the film “Legend” with Tom Cruise and Mia Sara…would you want Mia’s Lili as the pure-hearted forest nymph…or as the black-clad, black-lipped, serpentine seductress she becomes once Darkness has taken hold of her?

Or to put it more simply: Pat Boone. Elvis. Who do YOU think got more pussy?

I only fuck attractive men.  At one point I was a modelizer – male models.  Then athletes with an accent on soccer players.  I’ve never been with a man older than thirty, truth be told.  I like them young.  What’s an erotic writer to do? 

I have a friend who doesn’t have real relationships.  She justs fantasizes about having sex with famous men.  I guess that means she thinks highly of herself, right?  That or she simply raises the bar so high that she knows she can never attain her heart’s desire.  Is there comfort in that?  When she finally met the Yankee of her dreams, she became tongue-tied and idiotic.  Very much like a bad sit-com moment.  I would have thought she’d have practiced her opening remarks and witticisms ahead of time, just in case.

I rarely think about having sex with celebrities.  Instead of thinking about how attractive or powerful or cool they are, I sort of think they probably have the herp or something equally disturbing.  Like so many are bi-polar or ego-maniacs.  Or there’s that horrific possibility that the well-known dream man sports a tiny dick.  Would that matter if he was rich and powerful?  Uh, yes.

Who do I want to fuck?  Hmmm.  I need to think carefully on this, because I’m such a lucky girl.  I make things happen for myself when I wish and dream.  Because it’s possible.  Things are happening everyday.  For my whole adult life I’ve wanted to meet and fuck Jasper Johns. I think he’s the greatest living artist and the greatest artist who’s ever lived.  I love him.   I think he’s either gay or one of those mono-sexers, no relationship guys.  I want to have his baby.  My child would grow up to be a great artist too.  He’s eighty now -still alive, so you never know.  He’s the one person I’d probably get tongue-tied over.  He’s a god to me. 

Zahi Hawass would be a fun dinner date/fuck.  He could talk to me about mummies all night and into the morning.  Love that archeological intelligence.  He is a bit of a bear to work for I gather, but so what?  He’d be worth his weight in linen and scarab beetle jewelry.  He could take me inside a pyramid, maybe the Queen’s chamber of the Giza pyramid.  No, that won’t work.  I’d rather be in a luxurious 5-star hotel with air conditioning.  And you can’t wear stilettos in the sand.

I just watched Transporter 3 with Jason Statham.  A man of few words in the film, which I love.  Can’t stand an opinionated blabber-mouth of a guy.  Now, I don’t know him in real life, but maybe I won’t care if he’s mouthy, as long as he walks around naked.  I’m not bothered by his receding hair-line because his lips, abs and ass more than make up for it.  God, he’s beautiful, and of course I love the accent.  I’m in love with the UK sound as I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog.  It just sounds smarter.

I’ve modeled a character in Cinderella Thyme after him, so everytime I write a new scene I get to picture him.  I wonder if I could lure him into bed with that info?  I’m kind of thinking yes. 

Isn’t it weird that I picked older men?  The fact is – I really do need to settle for a man my own age.  Not settle exactly, maybe focus is the word.  Okay, Jason.  Tag, you’re it!

…James Joyce, apparently. Or is it Stephen King, or maybe Margaret Atwood, or possibly H.P. Lovecraft and maybe sometimes even a smidgeon like Anne Rice? Sometimes I even write like Dan Brown or Stephenie Meyer.

Yes, it’s the funky, hot-trending, salve-for-aspiring-writers-everywhere, IWriteLike tool!

It’s all a bit of harmless fun really (or a sinister idea-harvesting machine of diabolic proportions). I’m not sure what’s whirring away behind the screen, although a previous incarnation of me would postulate they’re using some kind of vector space model with maybe some extra doodads to score other metrics such as sentence length, etc.

How useful? Probably not very. It’s a nice boost to be compared to someone successful and famous, but ultimately the program is only returning whichever writer in their database (I believe there are 40) you happen to be closest to. Close in this case being relative. Even if they’re all clustered tightly together at a position in space marked ‘publishable and famous’ and you’re way off in the void of ‘never-to-be’, one of them is still going to be the closest to you.

What they needed to do was raid the slush piles of a big publishing house to create some more realistic reference points such as ‘rejected for lousy grammar’, ‘rejected for overly flowery language’, ‘rejected for unbearable dullness’, ‘rejected because it doesn’t contain any vampires’ and ‘rejected because our intern fell behind and couldn’t be bothered to read it’. In the absence of those points Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer appear to have been designated as the badges of shame. Not sure why really. Personally, I’d be quite happy to be told I write like people who’ve amassed bank balances large enough to capsize small islands.

Hi, this is Gavin, your friendly Excessica publicist, with the releases for 07/16/10!  Along with the usual volcanic heat, we’ve definitely got some darkness and danger for you this week.  Get lost in the world of black market porn in J.E. Taylor’s new novel that has already received wide acclaim.   Emma Hillman’s scorching Rubenesque romance will keep you on the edge of your seat.     D.B. Story is a double threat this week, first with a spicy robot romance.  Then, with help from co-author Brinke Stevens, he goes over to the dark side and dares you to enter their realm of Dangerous Toys.  Yipes!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

eXcessica new releases

A Thin Line

By Emma Hillman

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (15,997 words)

Category: Romance, Rubenesque

Firebolt Level: 4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HEA

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Kate finds herself locked up in her apartment building’s laundry room. It’s the middle of the night and there’s a man with her. Which would be the great start of a horror movie, except this is real and thankfully the man isn’t that bad. Actually, he’s quite nice. Oh, and hot. He’s a neighbor she’s seen a few times, the playboy with the golden looks. And as they find themselves sitting increasingly closer in an effort not to freeze to death, hands bump into parts of her body that haven’t been touched in years.

It could have stopped at that: one night of pleasure, albeit in a weird location. Except it doesn’t. Even though she knows Jace has another girlfriend, she still opens her door to him every night. He is addictive. And sometimes, he’s even nice. But what happens when the drama finally takes its toll and she bars her door to him?

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and anal play/sex.

Mandy

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (11,950 words)

Category: Science Fiction, Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 1

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

From the earliest days of robots comes this bittersweet tale of triumphs and limitations the first self-aware fembot faced in a world that was barely ready for her yet. Before she was done, Mandy would light up my life like no other woman could, and test all that I could endure. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots.

Survival Games

By J.E. Taylor

www.excessica.com

Length: Super Novel (84,977 words)

Category: Thriller/Suspense

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $6.99

BUY IT!

Until he snatches sexy stock jock Jessica Connor, Ty Aris happily followed his step-brother’s orders, producing some of the most coveted black market porn and snuff films on the street. But the day he grabs her in the parking lot, his life becomes a living nightmare.

Options that won’t land him in jail . . . or worse . . . a captive in Frank’s sadistic prison.

Warnings: This title contains graphic violence, language and depictions of rape.

Dangerous Toys: Volume One

By D.B. Story and Brinke Stevens

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (19,875 words)

Category: Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, Erotic, Sadism, Robots, Fembots, Artificial People

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Come take a walk on the dark side in this suspenseful anthology of two stories and two short-shorts about adult toys that were maybe best left in their boxes. In Achiever you’ll meet a very rich man who buys himself a sophisticated toy to abuse, only to discover that it has a hidden will of its own. Next is the short tale of Evolution’s Darling about a woman who can be anything you want as a lover, but is definitely not one to be toyed with. Then go spend a day at the Play Park, an amusement venue that definitely isn’t your father’s Disneyland. And in Cupcake, learn why it isn’t a good idea to play around with the family servant, even if she is just a sexy robot maid. These tales are for the daring, tales that seek to stick with you afterwards, so pay attention to the warnings.

Warnings: This title contains sex, violence, rape, sadism, torture, and death—have a nice day.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

Today I got back from two weeks away and GOD am I glad for the solitude!

This past week, I vacationed with family. Siblings…parents…that sort of thing. You know what I remembered as I spent twenty four hours a day, seven days a week with my family? I remembered why I do not live with, in, on, around, or in the vague vicinity of my family. Don’t get me wrong–I do love them! I do…but…but…well, there’s only so much family I can handle. This week, I went a little overboard and now I’m feeling the consequences.

It feels a lot like a hangover.

The week before last, I stayed at my girlfriend’s house. I love her too. I do…(can you see where this is going?)…and I can spend much more time with her than with my family before I peak in annoyance…but…but…well, Sweet’s house is very much her house. It isn’t my space. If I’m loading the dishwasher the wrong way, I’m going to hear about it. And, “Why are you chopping the onion like that? No, no. Give me the knife. I’ll show you how…”

*sigh*

I do know how to chop an onion. I’ve done it before, with relatively minor consequences.

Anyhoo…today I’m in my own home, where I can chop onions however I damn well please and load the dishwasher…well, actually, I don’t have a dishwasher, so I don’t need to worry about that part. But the point is that I’m back in my own space, and not a moment too soon.

I love the people in my life. I love my friends, my family, and most of all my pernickety girlfriend who must have onions chopped just so. Even though I love all these people, I don’t want to live with a single one of them. Call me a hermit, but I would go crazy without my solitude.

Virginia Woolf had her room. I have my bed. Yes, I do share it with cats, but cats are much less annoying than people. I’ll tell you a secret–I’ve never liked sharing a bed with anyone. I much prefer sleeping alone.

Waking up beside Sweet is pleasant. I do enjoy watching her dream. Her face is so perfectly beautiful when she’s at rest. All the same, I could do without the snoring, the excess body heat, and the ridiculously bad music they play on the radio station she insists on waking up to.

Lone wolf…hermit…crazy cat lady…call me what you will, but I believe in having a bed of one’s own.

Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!
gisellerenarde.webs.com
twitter.com/gisellerenarde

Hey folks – I figured I’d use today’s blog to talk about the experience of a book launch and marketing when your book is offered only on the web. It’s a different beast than that of a book available in brick and mortar. With a brick and mortar release, the author can go to the local stores and sign stock and have that human experience face to face with potential fans which does a great deal in spreading the word.

But a virtual release is something else again. Some choose to have virtual parties, or give-a-ways, or blog tours or video trailers, or a combination of all those different avenues. The key is to get the news out and cause a buzz about our book. As an author, our number one job is writing a kick ass book that readers won’t be able to put down. The reality is that we also have a second job – and that’s to get the word out.

Plenty of folks get that deer in the headlight look when someone mentions marketing plans and strategies and utilizing the services out there to the best of our ability without accosting folks like a used car salesman. Standing on the virtual streets yelling BUY MY BOOK over and over again only alienates people, so what can we do?

The key – and I’ve heard this from several marketing savvy folks – is not to scream buy my book, but to instead whisper a hint here and there in between giving readers something entertaining and educational in the process.

That doesn’t preclude giving release date information along with links where followers can access the e-book or paperback. But don’t beat them over the head with it.

There is definitely an art to marketing and marketing effectively. The old adage “There is no I in team” – well that kind of applies here too. If we give off the perception of “It’s all about me” then we’ll lose potential readers – because while we wrote the book, it really is all about the reader’s experience.

Writer’s that have a solid product and really hone in on this point are the ones that are super successful. So hone that marketing plan and make sure it includes accolades for others and some entertainment value to boot and you’ll gain traction more than the used car salesman approach.

So with that – here’s to an effective marketing plan and uber success for all my fellow writers!

Hello, this is Gavin, your friendly Excessica Publicist with the releases for July 9^th, 2010!  First, we are very excited to present the debut of Madeleine Drake with her scorching story of an “ardat-lili” (a succubus!) and her vampire lover.  We continue the volcanic heat with Cherry Lee’s newest foray into the wild world of BDSM and a very special anthology of threesomes edited by Selena Kitt featuring some of Excessica’s most popular authors.  Then D.B. Story’s latest romance in his world of robots is sure to entertain.  Have a wonderful week!

eXcessica new releases

Aunt Lonnie

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (12,300 words)

Category: Sci Fi, Romance

Firebolt Level: 2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

“Aunt Lonnie” is a pre-Emancipation story in the earlier days when robots were still expensive and uncommon. Fortunately some people always have the means to buy the best stuff, and then like to tinker with them afterwards to improve their performance, as a young man is about to discover. After you meet her you may wish you had an Aunt Lonnie in your own family tree. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 2, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots including coerced sex.

Blood Hero

By Madeleine Drake

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (7,100 words)

Category: Vampire, Paranormal, Historical

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

When Rihat, a soldier in Babylon’s army, discovers that his village is being terrorized by an akhazu demon, he seeks help at Marduk’s temple. He meets Iltani, a demigoddess who’s been cursed by Ishtar to live as an ardat-lili, enslaved by lust, a night-maiden who feeds on sexual energy.

Iltani offers Rihat the power to slay the akhazu, if he’ll agree to serve her every need without question. But will the price of that power be more than Rihat can bear to pay?

Warnings: This title contains graphic m/f sex, violence, m/m attraction.

Show Pony

By Cherry Lee

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (18,000 words)

Category: BDSM

Firebolt Level: 5

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HFN

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Shrinking Violet her school mates once called her. Violet has never grown any bolder than she was back then. She has spent the last couple of years as a full time slave to a wheelchair-bound Master, content to live quietly doing his bidding.

When he tells her she’s to be sold to a trainer who prepares women to be ponies, Violet is afraid. She doesn’t do well with change or venturing out of her comfort zone. But Tom, the trainer takes her in hand and expands her horizons. Bit by bit he brings out the confident show pony in the demure woman.

Warnings: This title contains anal, oral and vaginal sex, blow jobs, whipping and ass reaming, and a lot of girls who enjoy playing at being My Little Pony.

Triad

Edited by Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Super Novel (94,417 words)

Category: Ménage, Anthology

Firebolt Level:  5

Excess Level: 4

Ending: ? (see key below)

Price: $6.99

BUY IT!

Welcome to a MENAGErie of sex in this steamy offering from the authors at eXcessica! The characters in these stories have all learned their kindergarten lessons—they share very well with others! From two men sharing her, to two women sharing him, and even all three men sharing each other, there’s a plethora of sex in this hot anthology with a dozen stories to make your flesh-sandwich dreams come true! Stories included by: Elliott Mabeuse, Emma Hillman, Giselle Renarde, Jack Osprey, Saskia Walker, Bekki Lynn, Selena Kitt, Darcy Sweet, Will Belegon, Dakota Trace, J.M. Snyder and Willson Rowe.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, sex, menage, and some m/m, f/f content and one m/m/m story.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

I’m not a particularly prolific writer. Or, perhaps more correctly, I’m not a particularly persistent writer. I have dozens of stories, short and long, which require not too much more effort before they’ll be in a fit state for submission. But I can’t quite get them over the line. There are so many ways to fail to write, and all of them tend to make me cranky. In the dark moments it can sometimes feel as if the Universe is against me.

One of my main stumbling blocks is the fact that I’m trying to concurrently run a music career. I’ve been doing that for over 20 years now, and haven’t set the world aflame. That doesn’t stop me trying, since it’s something I love doing and which I’m actually not too bad at. I was lucky enough to discover early on that bass guitar was my home. I didn’t need to go through the process of believing I was the next Eric Clapton, then hoping I could at least be the next Keith Richards, and then settling for being a watered-down Adam Clayton. The moment I pressed myself up against my first four-stringed succubus I was sold on the sub-culture.

A few months back my band, The Medicine Show, scored a support slot with touring American band Nashville Pussy. That was pretty cool. Cool on toast, actually. Last night, Saturday June 10th 2010, left that experience for dead. Last night, we played support to Wolfmother.

It was a small gig, for charity, so there wasn’t an enormous crowd. It was, in fact, a very magnanimous gesture that Wolfmother involved themselves. They really are much bigger than that, but chose not to flex those muscles. For that, many people (myself included) are grateful.

One of the inevitable issues with a gig like that one is the waiting around. The time suckage. We arrived at 5pm, during Wolfmother’s sound check, but we weren’t due to play until 8.40. Though this is not unusual, there is always a little monkey on my shoulder at those times, whispering about how I could maybe have been writing more if I’d chosen to give music up. There is, of course, another monkey on the other shoulder who whispers about how, maybe this time, for the first time in history, there’ll be a chick who wants to take the bass player home! Hey, they’re MY monkeys, they’ll say whatever my hallucinating mind wants to believe.

After the sound check, Harry and I were lucky enough to chat backstage with Will, the drummer from Wolfmother. We talked about the vagaries of the music industry in our country versus his (he’s a damn Yank!), and there were quick little discussions about some of the hardships of a life in a working band. He shared his wisdom, and we shared ours, and we came to a similar conclusion.

We have chosen this life.

We have the opportunity to tour the world and be paid for playing loud music. We are permitted to play with our toys, and we are often lauded for it. To whine about any petty problems which result would be pretty churlish.

Which brings me back to writing. Writing has been a love of mine since I was 10 years old, perhaps even longer. Currently I can’t feed it enough to make it grow. It would eat more time than my kids do, and that just will not happen. It hurts, and it angers, and it sometimes gouges black pits out of my emotional security.

I have chosen this life.

When my debut story, Blood Hero, was accepted by Selena, I was so happy, I wanted to tell the world.  I emailed my critique partners.  I called my husband at work.  I called my wyrd sister, a woman who’s been one of my closest friends for more than thirty years.

I was about to post a brief note on Facebook…and then I stopped myself.  Did I really want the world to know that I write erotica?

I believe that sex is a normal part of the human experience, and that a healthy sexual imagination is part of being well-adjusted.  As a molestation survivor, reading erotic stories was part of my healing process, not just because it allowed me a safe arena for exploring my own feelings about sex, but because it gave me a chance to see sex portrayed in healthy ways–sex where the participants were joyful and enthusiastic.  Reading erotica showed me that there is no normal, there’s just what makes you happy and who you decide to share that happiness with.

So I should be proud to write it, shouldn’t I?  Proud to write about women who aren’t afraid to own their sexuality, and about men who are strong enough to experience that vulnerability that is part of complete intimacy with another human being.

After some soul-searching, I realized that I am proud to write erotica.  But I also realize that different people are on different paths when it comes to sex, and not everyone has reached a point where they are comfortable with their sexuality.  Some people will be uncomfortable reading my work, not because there’s anything wrong with it, but simply because they’re not ready.

So I didn’t post that note on Facebook.  I didn’t tell my recently-widowed mother, or the people I’ve reconnected with in high school.  I didn’t even tell some of my writing buddies.

But I’m telling you, because if you’re reading this blog post, you’re ready.

I am now just a little over a week away from my Salem, MA Adventure. I am in that panicky preparation stage where you look at the calendar and can’t figure out how you will finish your work, get your house organized, pack, spend some time with your family, etc. You see my Salem adventure is my first real trip away from children and husband. I am just not going to think about that.

I am going for the week with three other women whose roles in my life, whether related by blood or not, have all hit on mother, sister, advocate, friend, and so on. Of course on this trip they will also serve as support group and therapist as I tug on those proverbial apron strings a bit being so far away from my teenage children. If you are wondering, the answer is “No, I am not overprotective. How dare you suggest such a thing! And, don’t bring it up around the kids!”

So, adventure it will be in many ways. I feel drawn there for writing research. I just feel stories await me there. Appropriate timing I realize coming up on the two year anniversary of the release of my first witchy stories. Not that I don’t already have plots stacking up here, but I feel more coming on.

I hope to write again in two weeks, if I find a good internet connection, coming to you live from Salem, Ipswich or Marblehead…wherever the day shall find me

I feel as if I’ve gone through a big change in my approach to writing over the last couple of years. It’s been tough, but it’s a good feeling as I come out the other side.

During 2007 I made a conscious effort to spend more time on my novel-length ideas and a wee bit less on short stories. It was a hard transition, and after a while I realised that short stories had become a comfort blanket to me. Bit of a shock, tbh! I had to face up to it. I’d started out as a short story writer and for the longest time that’s all I did. Once I’d had a few accepted and published it felt safer and less scary than the novel-length world that also tempted me. Shorts also give a sense of achievement in a smaller space of time, and that can be such a lure when dealing with all the doubts and insecurities that crop up as a writer…but I *wanted* to spend more of my time on my novel length ideas.

Over the last 2-3 years it’s been a struggle, but this year it seems to have happened. I’m instinctively thinking about the longer stories, instead of the short ones. How did I do it? I’m not sure. Perhaps it was a natural transition, or maybe it took me all that time to rearrange my thinking.

I’ll never give up writing short stories—aside from anything I think shorts are one of the best ways to get your name out there. Shorts are a terrific way to learn, and to give readers a chance to try out your offerings, but the only way I can learn and grow as a novelist is to keep writing longer work and keep challenging myself. It’s a long slow trip, this writer’s journey, but I’m getting there!

Have a great week!

Saskia
http://www.saskiawalker.co.uk/home.html
http://www.saskiawalker.blogspot.com/

That’s what I’d love to say to the guys over at Literotica.com who bicker on the Nude Day Contest support thread.  Needless to say- not supportive.  But I don’t say anything because people imagine tone in the simplest of comments.  I reported that my score for Fox Hunt hadn’t changed in a week and someone responded, “Don’t be negative – stay positive”. 

Is it being negative to report facts?  How funny.  I only pop onto the thread as a marketing strategy.  I report my shit and then someone sees it, sees the link and reads the story, votes on it and subsequently buys my book and we all live happily ever after.

Because I’ve been slaving over my second novel, I really didn’t have time to put together another short story and it felt weird to not participate.  Fox Hunt is an edited version of Cinderella Club’s Chapter 8.  It was an opportunity to promote the book, which launches in exactly one month.  That and it fit the criteria of Nude Day as there were naked people running around naked outside having all naked sex.  I’m competing non-competitively.  Since I won the February contest I’m not eligible to win again for a while.   Entering those contests on Lit is like doing a homework assignment, only it’s self-motivated because you’re only graded by a handful of super nice erotica fans as well as a bunch of hostile meat slappers who don’t find your work stimulating enough.  (Hence the rollercoaster ride of watching your story score change.)

Which brings me full circle.  I had to get a room myself.  Yesterday was Masturbation Day.  I think I should lobby to have it become a real holiday because it was great.   All I did was masturbate.  I think I did it like six or seven times.  I don’t know what to tell you.  My novel was getting me off.  And later my friend Jaymal allowed me a preview of his Literotica Nude Day story and well, yeah, you know.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=482935

Hello!  This is Gavin, your friendly Excessica publicist with the releases for 7/2/10!   First, travel to ancient Rome for a supremely hot M/M encounter with a barbarian general.  Then go back to school to learn all what the Fembot craze is all about in the new sci fi release from D.B. Story.  Take an emotional journey with Selena Kitt’s new F/F story, and finally, you won’t believe how hot Habu can make the world of espionage until you pick up his newest collection of scorching M/M short stories.

While I have your attention, did you miss Nisey’s Awakening by Dakota Trace?  It’s received a deluge of great reviews!  If you enjoy BDSM stories, don’t forget to check it out!

Have a wonderful week!

eXcessica new releases

Dominus

By G.S. Wiley

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (4,960 words)

Category: gay male, historical

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

Roman patrician Meridius is wealthy, refined, erudite. He has the ear of the Emperor and is the epitome of Roman class, and he likes nothing more than to be debased at the hands of the uncultured and barbaric General Gallus. When Gallus calls on Meridius to help influence the Emperor, Meridius has to decide whether Gallus is good for more than just a rough roll in the hay, and whether he is willing to risk the Roman Empire based on the general’s word.

Warnings: This title contains explicit language, graphic male/male sex, rough sex and anal sex.

Fembot Studies

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (12,280)

Category: Sci Fi

Firebolt Level:  1

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Fembot Studies is the university course where you go to learn just what this fembot thing is all about, right from the source. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains no sex.

Stay

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (7,195 words)

Category: lesbian

Firebolt Level: 3

Excess Level: 3

Ending: ? (See key below)

Price: $2.99

BUY IT!

Claire has experienced a great loss, and is facing another one—and she just doesn’t know if she’s ready to deal. Dr. Mary Rennalls looks at beautiful Claire with more than pity and compassion, but will the two women find solace in each other’s arms, or will Claire’s fear of losing yet another loved one keep her from trusting again?

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and f/f sex.

Spy Candy

By Habu

www.excessica.com

Length: Super Novel (82,625 words)

Category: Gay Male, Story Collection

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: ? (See key below)

Price: $6.99

BUY IT!

This twenty-story gay male anthology is pure fiction. Nothing like this would happen in the real intelligence world. Wipe from your mind even the slightest thought that anything like this has already happened in the collection of intelligence down through the ages. There would never be a special unit in U.S. intelligence, for instance, that collected intelligence the time-honored way—by sexual purchase and subornation. There would certainly be no use of male homosexuality and society’s censure of that to recruit and control foreign intelligence assets as is fantasized in these stories It’s true that the easiest, most assured way of collecting intelligence is not torture. It, rather, is the “giving” to someone who knows what you want to know what they want most in exchange for information they know. So, do enjoy this collection of short stories on a fantasy depiction of the techniques and methods of collecting intelligence through gay male spy candy. But don’t for a moment think that it does happen or that it ever could. It’s pure fiction, yes it is.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, m/m sex, fetish, and descriptions of virtual nonconsent.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

So I was on one of my night time internet trawls – distraction behaviour when I should be writing – and I came across this.

It was the marketing blurb that interested me:

“Longing for sizzling stories of sexy demon lovers, seductive vampires seething with oral metaphor, kinky succubi ready for nameless sins? Are you slavering to taste the obscene forked kiss of tales that titillate and terrorize?

Wow, sounds scorching. Where’s the button with the little shopping trolley icon?

“This isn’t it.”

Oh.

“If you want unsurprising, comfortable “erotic horror,” you’ve got the wrong book Go back to reading Fangs For The Mammaries XXIV”

Um…yeah. Guess I’ll slink off with my tail between my legs. Thanks for the slap on the face.

Okay, so you checked the date, saw the anthology is about ten years old, probably out of print and are wondering why I’m blathering about it now.

I think because it struck me as a perfect example of the inferiority complex genre fiction – always a whipping boy for the critics in their ivory towers – suffers from, and that’s just as true then as now. It screams defensiveness – “We’re not like those other stories you think might exist, we’re important, serious work.”

Why?

Seductive vamps and their ilk are the bread and butter of the horror genre. People buy horror books and pay to go and see horror movies because they want to read/see those tales. One of the things that used to bother me back when I was devouring horror anthologies was so many writers were trying so hard to avoid the usual horror conventions their stories ended up being not what I bought the book for in the first place. Why the shame? Isn’t the purpose of Erotic Horror to ‘titillate and terrorize’?

Nothing against the book. I’m sure it’s very good. There are a lot of good writers amongst the contributors. I found it odd they chose to define it by what it isn’t rather than what it is.

Wouldn’t mind reading that hypothetical Fangs For The Mammaries XXIV though…

‘Cause sometimes you just need someone to talk to.

Those who’ve been following me for a while may recall that for the past couple years I’ve donated all my fourth quarter income from e-book sales to a great organization called LGBT YOUTHLINE.

LGBT YOUTHLINE provides queer-positive, non-judgmental peer support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, 2-spirit, queer and questioning youth. LGBT YOUTHLINE offers free services through its toll-free phone number, by email and instant messenger. For more information on this worthy cause, visit their website.

There are so many reasons I believe in what LGBT YOUTHLINE’s doing–not the least of which is the range of media by which they offer services. Being available to LGBT youth via instant messenger and email is less restrictive and more anonymous, which is something today’s youth seem to value. (hahaha…like I don’t choose e-mail over telephone myself!)

This year, I want to launch a similar campaign in the fourth quarter. Just a few tweaks. In years past, I haven’t had all that much work on the market. When I started my campaign last September, I think I had four e-books available. Now I have well over fifteen. The bigger change is that in years past I’ve had personal income from day jobs. Now it’s all writing, baby. This sounds like “excuses, excuses,” even to me, but realistically this year we’re going to have to pick and choose which books we should donate royalties from.

It’s pride month–perfect time to make a democratic decision about which of my books will help support LGBT youth.

For those who aren’t clear on how my LGBT YOUTHLINE campaigns work, it’s super simple: You guys buy my books during a given time period (this year it’ll most likely be October 1-December 31 2010, but details to be confirmed), and then I donate the royalties I earn on those purchases to LGBT YOUTHLINE. See? Super, super easy!

So, which books will it be this year? There are so many to choose from! I’m including a list of my works currently on the market in this post (below) and all these titles are linked so you can click and find out more about them. I’ve also classified them as les (lesbian), bi (bisexual), TG (transgender), het (heterosexual) for quick reference. When you decide which title(s) you’d like to see me donate royalties from, go over to the poll at the sidebar of my blog (over to your right. See it?) and vote!

Okay, ready for my books? Here are the titles you can choose from:

All in a Valentine Day’s Work (bi)
A Mistress’ Christmas (het)
Audrey & Lawrence (het)
Beneath the Ice (bi)
Cocktales (multiple anthologies)
Cunning Little Vixens (bi)
Faithful John and the Dungeon Ravens (het)
Kandinsky’s Shirt Button (TG/het)
Leslie Goosemoon Rides Again (TG/les)
Ondine (bi)
Red Satin (TG/les)
Spring Fever (TG/les)
Sweetheart Rolando (het)
Tangled Roots (het)
The Birthday Gift (bi)
The Little Burlesque House by the Sea (bi/les)
Third Rail (TG/bi)
Waxing is for Pussies (les)

Whew! What a list. Please, take an opportunity to peruse the links above or check out all my titles at my website, www.gisellerenarde.webs.com, and vote in the sidebar of my blog. I’m not just yanking you when I say I’m relying on your input.

Okay. Get voting!

Thank you all!
Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

So raise your hand if you do horoscopes. Higher! Okay…got it.

I do and I don’t. I tend to take all soothsaying with a grain of salt but am overall a believer in most things “woo woo” as my grandmother would have called them. Horoscopes, Tarot, Runes. I believe there is the opportunity for us all to tune in to the things that are beyond our normal senses.

Today (that I thought was Wednesday so forgive my tardiness) I ready my July horoscope on a whim. Hmm. Odd. If you follow my Smut Girl blog you know there is a lot of change and shift going on for me. Some of it scary, some of it great, some of it painful. So when I read my write up, I was only half paying attention. At first.

You may have broken free from some unproductive patterns recently, but now comes the hard work… *gulp*

Circumstances beyond your control profoundly affect decisions about your personal goals… *ahem*

Your presence is required in a quiet but supportive way that doesn’t run away from uncomfortable feelings… *um*

While your desire to get away from it all can make it difficult to focus on your job, this 30-day transit can also bring opportunities from distant locations… *eep*

And then I looked around for the cameras mounted on the walls and the boom mike hanging from the ceiling. Trust me, I know you think it seems like nothing, but if you were sitting in my skin, in my life, and strung it all together and read the whole thing as a whole…freaky. deaky. They are watching me (O_O). Heh.

So, horoscopes. Who buys it? Who leaves it? Who points and laughs at those of us who dig ‘em? Do tell.

XOXO
Sommer
Oops! Fabulous pendant here. Tada!

Hi, this is Gavin, your friendly Excessica publicist.  Here are the releases for June 25, 2010!  Did you hear a whip cracking?  This week we have three red-hot BDSM titles including Selena Kitt’s story of a wife who is surprised when she discovers how a counselor suggests she and her husband rescue their marriage.  Then, do you remember how Enslaving Sylvia knocked your socks off a few months ago?  Cherry Lee is back with the story of a waitress who meets a man willing to fill her need for a strict daddy. G.R. Richards provides a m/m/m office fantasy where trouble may be in store for the executives.  Then we cool things off a bit with the latest delightful sci fi offering from D.B. Story.  Have a great week!

eXcessica new releases

A Descent into the Mailroom

By G.R. Richards

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (4,634 words)

Category: Gay Male, Ménage, BDSM

Firebolt Level: 4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HEA

Price: $1.99

BUY IT!

What’s going on down there?

There’s a new trend in Human Resources. The department needs to get a first-hand look at the job responsibilities of every position in the company. Warren chooses reception while Ted Gassass, the unfortunately-named VP of HR, descends into the mailroom. At the lunch hour, when Ted hasn’t yet emerged, Warren begins a descent of his own. What does he discover? The VP, the mailroom lads, a good quantity of rope, and—their pride and joy—an old postage machine converted into the bad boy of mechanical devices. Will Warren ever ascend?

Warnings: This title contains M/M/M ménage, BDSM, and a fucking machine.

Candy’s Daddy

By Cherry Lee

www.excessica.com

Length: Novelette (20,900 words)

Category: Contemporary, BDSM

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 4

Ending: HEA

Price: $3.99

BUY IT!

Candy meets a man named Bob while working as a waitress at a bar. A one night hook up quickly turns into an intense relationship when they both admit to their inclination toward Daddy/daughter play. They play out many scenes that thrill them both. But after Candy moves in with Bob and gives up her autonomy to her new Daddy, she must decide how deep she is willing to go into her new persona.

Is she a woman playing a little girl or has she become a hybrid of both woman and girl? Can she surrender completely to Bob and be the little girl he’s always dreamed of caring for? Sometimes a woman has to leave the one she loves in order to come back to him completely.

Warnings: This title contains age play (Daddy/daughter), anal, oral and vaginal sex, spanking, discipline, gang banging and sex in multiple combinations.

The Flintstone Experiment

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (10,624 words)

Category: Contemporary, BDSM

Firebolt Level:  4

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

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In a last ditch effort to save their marriage, Laura drags her husband, Rick, to a couples workshop.But Laura gets a little more than she bargained for when the workshop leader proposes a rather unorthodox experiment, leaving her helpless to her husband’s whims. She finds herself wondering, will her man be a caveman or a gentleman—and which one does she really want him to be?

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, sex, and mild elements of bdsm, domination and submission.

Three Strikes Against Her

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (14,900 words)

Category: Sci Fi, Romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

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A robot with three strikes against her is one returned by three owners and a candidate for mind erasure and reprogramming to correct whatever perceived flaws keep causing her to be brought back. The robot, despite any wishes to the contrary she might have in the matter, has little in the way of options to avoid this fate, even when it’s hardly her fault that she was returned in this manner. Three Strikes Against Her tells the story of how the adventure of buying a used fembot turns out to be more than either the purchaser—or the fembot—expected after the fembot in question takes matters into her own hands to avoid an otherwise unpleasant fate in store for her. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots including coerced sex.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

Hi folks,

Sorry this is a little late – but my Monday got away from me and this is the first chance I’ve had to sit down at home.  I even left the dinner to wait in lieu of putting in the oven and ending up with a charcoal brick for dinner. 

This weekend we were without power for a bit on Friday and out of commission on the internet until Saturday evening.  Quite an experience with the kids and kind of makes me wish for simpler days when we weren’t tied to computers and cable television and found fun family things to do, like play cards or board games or – god forbid – read. 

My son picked up the first book in the Percy Jackson series and actually read some of it out loud.  He said the most astute thing – he really liked the book because he felt like it was happening to him, he could see, hear, touch, taste, smell and feel everything that was going on – in other words, he raved on and on about how much he liked the story. 

My son is ten, but he just described what we all as writers strive for.  That experience where we lift the reader from their lives and transport them into our imagination with palatable senses and strong emotions and keep them there until the story reaches its conclusion.  

My debut novel – Dark Reckoning – is being released by FIDO on July 5th, followed by my erotic debut of Survival Games from eXcessica on July 19th.  So with those dates looming, my nerves are getting the better of me and my son’s statement just hit home.   

I’m hoping that’s how people will feel about my books when they hit the shelves, that same excitement, that same compulsion to finish the story, to find out what happens next.   And I hope once they read that first novel, they will want to read the next one and the next and the next. . . 

Anyhow, on that note, I need to put those pot pies in the oven.  Let’s hope I don’t forget them like last time. 

Have a great week!

Ciao.

JET

Fiction, that is.

Or to be more precise: do you prefer stories with flowing and poetic prose, or are you a fan of the clipped and economic?

I tend to plump for the second option. This may be because of that ol’ Y chromosome that’s sitting and brooding in every cell of my body. This may also be because it’s the style I tend to use in my writing (the precious little I seem to get done these days).

I’ve tried the other kind of writing. I read, and very much enjoyed, “Fingersmith” by Sarah Waters. Not just because of the girl on girl action, either. It was a rare occasion where I was able to sink myself into a different time period with ease.

On the other hand, I battled through Philip Jose Farmer’s “Riverworld” series. Every word of every book. I thought it was a classic example of an amazing idea that suffocated under the weight of its own prose. I know I’m not the only one who finds Farmer’s work difficult, but there are arguably many more who think it’s better than a slap on the privates from a leather-clad dom.

But my greatest reading pleasure comes from the economic use of language. Elmore Leonard is, to me, a master of this. Walter Mosley is another who springs to mind. To me it’s like cooking. Grab a saucepan and pour in a paragraph full of words. Turn on the burner and boil it until it’s reduced to one sentence which has three times the flavour of the original para.

For this reason I love writing flash fiction, and the slightly longer short shorts (hey, what man doesn’t like short shorts?) Tiny stories that work by telling you far too little and letting the reader put in whatever works for them.

Currently, there’s a flash fiction contest going on being run by Alison Tyler. It’s called the Smut Marathon. Every two weeks writers submit a new 250-word-or-less erotic story based on a single word clue. Readers are asked to vote on the stories, with the two least voted authors being eliminated. It’s like Masterchef…or perhaps Masturbaker.

The link is http://smutmarathon.blogspot.com/?zx=cb8e67e323dcc86c if you’d like to check it out, but be warned…despite the name “Smut Marathon”, you MAY come across some language that’s a little…fruity. I know that no-one here is really into that sort of stuff, so I just thought I’d get it out in the open…ooh, too many dad-joke lines going through my head at the moment…

Currently there is a considerable eXcessica presence in the competition. The lovely Emma Hillman is there, and one of our frequent commenters, Evie Applegate is in the mix, too. There’s also some wanna-be called Wally…or Winslow…I can’t remember. Some masturbaker from Australia…

My Free Read, Bloodlust & Redemption, just went up at All Romance Ebooks. This novella contains a unique mixing of genres for me, that I just loved writing.

GENRES: Historical (Regency), Paranormal (Vampires), Gothic, Erotic Romance
CONTENT WARNINGS: Explicit Graphic Language, Violence & Bloodlust

BLURB: Conflicted by his ideas of fate and morality, David Ardington IV, who had been a rake in life, sees his eternal life as a vampire as a penance for shirking his noblesse oblige to his family.

When he meets Margaret, a sturdy maiden who after losing her parents in a tragic accident stifled her own needs to care for her sick brother, their attraction is immediate and undeniable. And yet, David fights his feelings for Margaret seeing her as the worst reminder of what he is and what he can never be again. In the midst of the cruel realities of his vampire existence, David fears for her safety unsure if he can keep separate his physical longings from his bloodlust.

Furthermore, when Margaret asks him to turn her brother to give him a second chance at life, he does not feel he can condemn anyone to the horrors of his dark existence either. For David, could redemption lie in doing the unthinkable Margaret asks of him, or will it forever be elusive?

BLOG REVIEW: “A great little piece of writing I had the pleasure to peruse over the weekend was Kiki Howell’s Bloodlust and Redemption.

This story is classified by the author as erotica, and though I’m not very much into that genre I did find the love scenes tastefully done and certainly not over-the-top. All in all it’s a very good, entertaining read and I do recommend it.” ~Nicole Hadaway, Literary Paranormal Author of Release

Link To Download from All Romance Ebooks: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-bloodlustandredemption-439269-139.html

Me again.  I feel like the tailor in The Emperor’s New Clothes, parading around as a writer instead of a fashion designer, although truth be told, I can whip up a dress in a Project Runway minute – and draw your portrait in under twenty.  Six weeks till my book launch.  I’m excited.  It’s exciting.  Really, I’ve never been happier to share my art than like this.  I think the internet is so extrordinary in that so many people all over the world have access.  I learned today that Cinderella Club will be sold in India, United Arab Emirates, France – all over the place.  I mean, it doesn’t mean they will actually buy it but it’s going to be available.  And a girl can dream, right? 

I’ve discovered a blog that I like called Write Sex.  It has great information about all aspects of writing erotica for publication.  One of the articles suggested that word of mouth is the best way to promote your book.  The mouths, naturally, must say good things about it.  Here’s the link.

http://www.writesex.net/

Here’s an excerpt from Cinderella Club just to prove that it’s not invisible.  Miller Smytheson is a dreamer too.

Please don’t let me die.  The driver placed her into the trunk where she remained contained for the rest of the long journey.

The sight deprivation combined with stress and the effects of the meds she’d taken caused Miller to drift in and out of consciousness.  And then sleep.  She found herself in the back seat of the limousine again but this time she wasn’t blindfolded, the man next to her no stranger.  Colin clamped the handcuffs to her wrists and ankles.  Colin gagged her mouth.  He pulled down his trousers to reveal his cock then lifted her legs up over his shoulder and entered her forcefully….

He said, “How beautifully you take to your shackles, to bondage, Milly, it’s breathtaking to see you in such torment….”

He pounded her with his strong cock, turning it about with a vengeance, slapping her cunt to its very depth in a way he never had before.  Miller watched as a gooey web of semen stretched the length of Colin’s cock and jammed back into her cunt, changing shape slightly with every thrust.  Its fibers became like a pliable cloth, like ballpark gum, the kind that looked like chewing tobacco.  Miller was confused and desperately wanted clarity.

“It’s a pity I didn’t do this sooner.  Really, young lady, you are the right girl,” he said.

His face became a sort of older version of himself.  This older Colin had a syringe in his hand, he pushed the drug into her vein, and she tried to scream.  But Miller had no voice.  Her body, nude now, shimmered in the moonlight coming through the windows, and she heard Mr. McMaster’s voice calmly explaining, “I own you and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

The car stopped abruptly and snapped Miller from her wicked thoughts.  How long had she been asleep?  This dream involving Colin seemed so real.  She wondered if her dreams were comforting her somehow, by creating Colin’s presence in this frightening real-life scenario.  Thinking about Colin calmed her if only a little and Miller hoped that serenity would offer sagacity, and help keep her safe.

eXcessica new releases

Communion

By Mallory Path

www.excessica.com

Length: Short Story (5,926 words)

Category: BDSM, Gay Male

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $1.99

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Tig, Vincent, Patrick, Colin, and Justin are long-time friends, but even the best of friends have secrets. Revelations can bring people closer, or tear them apart. That’s the chance Tig took when he confessed his desire for D/s intimacy to Vincent, Patrick and Colin. It has led to a very satisfying arrangement among them, although they’ve kept their relationship and BDSM activities from Justin.

Since taking up with Patrick and Colin, Vincent has seen and done more than he imagined possible, and he thought he knew what they were all getting into—but after tonight, nothing will ever be the same between these five friends.

Warnings: This title contains explicit gay male sex, polyamorous relationships/multiplesomes (twosome, threesome, fivesome), D/s and mild bondage.

I AM

By Eric Black

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (7,217 words)

Category: Paranormal

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 3

Ending: HFN

Price: $2.99

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When Dylan meets sexy and philosophical Joy, he’s on a one-way road trip to nowhere. He finds himself thinking less about the revolver sitting in his car waiting for the opportunity to end his life and more about living the time he has left as he spends time with the spirited and vivacious Joy—but when she disappears and he can’t find her,

Dylan is left wondering, was she ever really real, or just a figment of the tumor in his brain? Will he be able to find her—or at least find a reason for living?

Warnings: This title contains graphic language, sex, and f/f sex.

My First Robot

By D.B. Story

www.excessica.com

Length: Story (8,590 words)

Category: sci fi, romance

Firebolt Level:  2

Excess Level: 2

Ending: HEA

Price: $2.99

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My First Robot tells the tale of a young man given a robot back when robots are still uncommon, where said robot turns out to be rather more than he ever expected. This story from the Early Adopter Period shows what can happen when robots are yet to be ubiquitous, yet already full of surprises. (Note to buyers: This story is also contained in the anthology: The Fembot Chronicles—Volume 1, available in e-book and print. In the same way that iTunes sells individual tracks off of an album, individual stories are available without the need to buy the entire anthology.)

Warnings: This title contains sex with robots.

The Song of Orpheus

By Selena Kitt

www.excessica.com

Length: Novella (38,784)

Category: Fantasy, Mythology, Romance

Firebolt Level:  3

Excess Level: 1

Ending: HEA

Price: $4.99

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Eurydice has a difficult decision to make-choose a brief but perfect love, foretold to end in tragedy, or resign herself to a pleasant partnership that could potentially last forever. Not only does she find herself torn between two men, but also between a friend who would be hurt by one choice and gods who would be infuriated by the other. What’s a poor Naiad to do? You may think you know the tale of Orpheus and his lyre, but you’ve never heard it told like this, from the perspective of the woman who loved him, with an ending that will leave your heart singing.

Warnings: This title contains graphic language and sex.

Key:

HEA = Happily Ever After

HFN = Happy For Now

? = Ambiguous/Unknown

See the Excessica symbol page for explanation of Firebolts and Excess Levels

My dear friend, cover artist, webmaster and spiritual guru, Joey Walnuts, had a bad day. It was May 26, 2010—an historic day in Springfield, Illinois. What made this day so spectacular (and infamous) was the record rainfall of over four and a half inches in less than two hours. Some would say, oh, that’s no big deal. If you’re one of those people, all I can say is you weren’t there.

Four and a half inches in less than two hours can shut down an entire city—especially during evening rush hour. Flash flooding closes most roads. Viaducts fill with water so fast cars are over-come and, in some instances, completely covered. It’s a time for ordinary citizens to become instant heroes when they dive into rushing waters to pull people from such vehicles, rescuing mothers and small children.

Such a deluge closes businesses and schools when sewers back up and water floods buildings. Basements and homes fill. Cars are left stranded on streets-turned-river and tow companies start paying overtime. Owners of automotive centers and dealerships start rubbing their hands together in glee over all the money they’ll make repairing and replacing vehicles. Insurance carriers moan.

Joey’s basement was one that filled. Sadly, Joey was in St. Louis on a much-needed vacation.

It was his next door neighbor who called him, told him he’d better get home quick. By the time Joey made it back to Springfield, what was once a front walk-out of a finished basement was now an empty cavern. He could not see much of the damage due to the water that was still so high, but he knew life had just changed, and not necessarily for the better. Five and a half feet of water in your home has a tendency to do that.

To make matters worse, the under-ground pipes that carried raw sewage to the treatment facility were completely defeated. They gave under the onslaught, sending what could only be called “pooh geysers” bursting several feet straight up in the air. The filth mixed with the rainwater and mud, and flowed through Joey’s basement.

Can you say, “Yuck”?

Imagine standing in a neighbor’s yard watching all this with natural gas bubbling up through your house from broken lines, knowing there is nothing you can do. The man could not get near his home until the water receded. I’m sure the sight that greeted him when it did made him want to turn around and walk away.

There was a gaping hole in the front wall. Through that opening, much of what was once in his basement was washed out into his front yard. Among those items were walls, furniture, business suits, laundry machines, water heater, electronics and his furnace.

It wasn’t until they had bull-dozed away the wreckage out front that the true nature of the damage was learned. Everything was lost. The gas had been shut off, as had the power and the water. Everything had to be capped off before he could get the utilities turned on again. Then it was time to take inventory. Gone was his collection of vinyl, his comic books dating back to the ‘50’s, his stereo equipment and other valuables. Worst of all, he had lost all those endearing macaroni-on-paper creations from when his children were little. Photos, memories, an entire lifetime of accumulated smiles—all gone with the rush of a massive flash flood.

Yes, it was a bad day.

Okay, enough back-story. Joey has a lot of friends, a lot of people who had been helped by this wonderful man. Many of them work with him. His fellow employees, together with other friends, decided to put together a benefit for him. What a wonderful idea!

I wanted to help—beyond the obligatory selling of the tickets. I wanted to do more. The organizers had everything covered, so all I could think of was donating something for the silent bid auction and promoting it as much as possible. But what to donate…

The only logical thought was to donate a couple of novels—the very novels Joey decorated with his wonderful cover art. Thus was born “The Dark and Stormy Night Storm Preparedness Gift Package”. Yeah, I know. It’s a bad joke on poor Joey, but he has a good sense of humor.

The package was designed to have everything one needs to find solace and comfort in the midst of a storm-induced power outage: wine, chocolates, candles, matches, flashlight, book light, skin lotion to pamper, two Molly Wens novels and a teddy bear to keep one company.

Begin the anxiety.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but when I finally got to the event, the only bid was from my sister. Not that I’m ungrateful, but who was next? My mom? How does one address something like this?

An hour later, there was another bid. At first I was thrilled—until I realized it was the guy who was bidding on all the items that weren’t selling well. You know the guy, the one who tries to drum up a little interest by putting down a low amount others could easily out-bid. He’s at every benefit, a friend of the recipient who knows how to play the game to the best financial advantage.

I started to feel like the proverbial red-headed step-child. “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m gonna eat a worm.”

I determined to stop looking. It was embarrassing, to say the least. Just a short time later, though, Joey approached with a big grin on his face. “Have you seen the bids on your books?” he asked.

I burned bright red. Of course I’d seen and I was mortified. He’d been introducing me around as the author all night, getting an obvious kick out of the family “celebrity”. (Did I mention that he’s my husband’s uncle?) Other celebs from local and state media and government were in attendance, but something about having an author in the family really tickled him. Yet, my basket’s showing was less than spectacular.

Laughing at the expression on my face, he said, “You should really have a look,” before snatching my hand and dragging me to the auction tables. I almost swallowed my face.

The bids were many, more than doubled since last I looked, with several of the bidders apparently in a war over the package. At that point, they were bidding beyond the actual value.

Again, I blushed, feeling a different kind of embarrassment. This one was one I could live with. But, deciding it would be best to leave before the final outcome, I beat a hasty retreat before the moment of truth. Giving Joey a hug, I got out the door and headed for a local watering hole.

He told me later how much the winner paid. The person had paid $65.00 for a couple of my novels and a few assorted items.

Of course, all this is small potatoes when one stops to ponder the actual reason for the event. Joey ended up with enough to put a good dent in the money needed to make repairs. He was more than happy and everyone had a good time. He was afforded a rare opportunity to know where he stands in life—an opportunity so few of us has. What else was there?