Showing posts with label Alison Tyler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alison Tyler. Show all posts

Monday, 11 August 2014

Excerpt: Bound for Trouble

Alison's Tyler's Bound for Trouble. See what I did there? No, ok, well then... This Cleis Press antho is a celebration of bondage in all its variety. My story's called Doing It By the Book, and I promise you that things do get better for the couple involved...

I felt a bit silly, to be honest. It was a ridiculous position to be in. I’d expected the usual, spread-eagled on the bed with wrists and ankles tied to the corners. But Rob had read fast. I’d got him the book for his birthday, a bit of naughty amongst the sensible stuff he could show the family. Get Your Kink On: A Beginner’s Guide. We weren’t exactly beginners, but all my hints at doing something more adventurous had gone unheeded. But a guidebook, now that he could relate to. He’s a techie. Instruction manuals are bedtime reading.

But my initial thrill when I’d realized I was finally getting something different was wearing off. My ankle cuffs were tied to the top bar of the headboard, pulling my legs up in the air over my head. Wrists were, as usual, tethered to the corners of the bed. My pussy was utterly exposed and it should have been the fulfillment of my long-held fantasies. But all I could think about was the way the position squashed all my flab up under my thighs and gave me triple chins. The muscles behind my knees were starting to ache.

“The position allows the Dominant to perform oral sex, or, should the submissive require chastisement, to administer punishment to the buttocks and thighs with the hand or an implement.”

Oh God, he was actually reading from the text. And although the book was full of good ideas, it managed to convey them in a dry manner more appropriate to a computer programming manual. Rob was reading from Chapter Two: Basic Bondage for Sex and Dominance. The fancy stuff came in Chapter Three: Bondage for Decoration and Art. I knew. I’d already speed-read the book, careful not to bend the pages back, before wrapping it for him.

“The Dominant may also be able to perform intercourse, either vaginal or anal, although this requires a high degree of upper leg strength.”

“Honey, perhaps I should admit that I’ve already read it,” I said it. “So you don’t need to say it all out loud.”

“Oh sorry,” he said. “I wasn’t reading it to you, I’m just making sure I cover everything. I won’t be performing anal intercourse though so don’t worry about that.” He carried on the muttered monotone, “The position does, however, inhibit access to the submissive’s mouth.”

Oh Rob, I’m not worried, I said to myself.

You can buy Bound for Trouble from Amazon US and Amazon UK. And find out more about the book in its Pop-Up Porn tour at Alison Tyler's blog.

Monday, 28 July 2014

Out now... Bound for Trouble

Look what else sneaked out last week while I was away: Bound for Trouble, edited by Alison Tyler and published by Cleis Press. It contains my story, Doing It by the Book. 

Here's the blurb:

Bound for Trouble serves up every kinkster’s dream. Alison Tyler, queen of flogging fiction, has taken exquisite pains to collect the very best BDSM stories for your reading pleasure, with each tale focusing on a different facet of the bondage theme. The players in this spellbinding collection will send shivers down your spine, whether they use cuffs, just words, rope or even paper chains! Are you hooked yet? Teresa Noelle Roberts shows how a chest harness and an oh-so-carefully knotted rope corset can induce the hypnotic bliss of “Ropenosis.” Daddy’s little girl has a really good time with “Sex Party Magic” and puts on quite a show for the onlookers in Kristy Lin Billuni’s tale. D. L. King’s “My Pretty Pony” involves power play, imagination and a pair of very kinky boots. There are male subs, femme dommes and switches of every stripe in between. Just for you.

Incidentally, Cleis Press are celebrating their 34th anniversary of publishing with a Summer of Love giveaway. Buy two of their books get a third free. 

I think I owe you at least three excerpts now. Coming soon! 

You can buy Bound for Trouble from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Cleis Press loveliness

It's looking like a kinky year with Cleis Press for me. Best Bondage Erotica 2014 has just come out and I have a few more stories on the way in other anthologies. So I thought I'd share some sweet little covers (and by 'sweet' I mean... well, you know me by now). 

Bear with me while I engage in pure self-indulgence, a 'look at me, look at all these pretty books I'm in' moment. Because most of these are not yet available, but they are pretty books. I have to stay quiet about many of the covers I see on erotica and erotic romance offerings because my comments might not come across well online. (But if you want to see a nicely balanced view, check out Janine Ashbless's blog post about covers). But Cleis covers hit the spot for me. Sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're brash, but always they look professional, appropriate to the content and, well, hot. 

Best Bondage Erotica 2014
Out now
Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Contains my m/f story Tight-Rope Walker 
Buy now at Amazon/Amazon UK
Can't Get Enough

Out July 2014
Edited by Tenille Brown
Contains my m/m story Mud and Pain
Pre-order at Amazon/Amazon UK

Bound for Trouble
Out July 2014
Edited by Alison Tyler
Contains my m/f story Doing It by the Book
Pre-order at Amazon/Amazon UK














The Big Book of Submission

Out July 2014
Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Contains my stories Training My Dom (m/f) 
and Toasted Marshmallows (mmff?!)
Pre-order at Amazon or Amazon UK
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Friday, 22 November 2013

"It left me wanting more"

I've had what I believe is my first proper review, for my ebook Miranda's Tempest, published earlier this year by House of Erotica. I'm not counting the two that show up on Amazon for Xcite anthologies I'm in. One of them says "it's just a collection of pornographic short stories" as if that's a bad thing (Cherry Ripe: 5 historical erotic romance stories). The other admits the stories are sexy, but the reader is glad they got the book as a freebie (Miss Pemberton's Drawers: 6 erotic short stories)! 

Anyway, John D of the blog John D Stories is posting a series of reviews of books by authors he's interacted with online. And that's the thing about being a writer or reviewer in the age of social networking - you can't hide from each other! But fortunately, in this case, that hasn't stopped John giving an honest appraisal of the book, with good points and bad. I'd much rather have that than have my ego massaged, when it really comes down to it. No really. Honest. I think. 

But, since I'm only human, I'm going to share some of the good things he said... and leave it up to you to go and read the rest of it over at his place. Incidentally, you'll also find reviews of Banging Rebecca by Alison Tyler and Xcite collections A Victorian Seasonal Spanking, featuring a tale by Victoria Blisse, and Deliberate Display, featuring one by Lucy Felthouse. 

Here's my favourite bit of the review of Miranda's Tempest; it's about the final story of the trio in the book, Penelope's Odyssey, which takes Homer's The Odyssey as its starting point but looks at it from his wife, Penelope's, perspective: 

The story lends itself perfectly to an erotic tale, and Tilly Hunter has, in my opinion, saved her best story until last. The text ebbs and flows effortlessly, drawing in a fantastic little story that moves at pace, with a great sex scene of female domination. It left me wanting more, which is no bad thing.

So there you go. I should warn you that if you visit John's blog you might get distracted by his own fiction, and the stories and pictures of his real-life antics...

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Review: Dark Secret Love by Alison Tyler

It's my turn to join in the big Dark Secret Love blog tour, with a review of Alison Tyler's novel. For all the blog tour stops and the chance to win a fabulous prize, check out her blog post all about it. Here goes:

So you’ve got kink at first sight (repeatedly), you’ve got a girl swept off her feet by a rich guy with a swanky home, you’ve got the obligatory BDSM club scene. You’ve got plenty of naughty bits simmering away continually throughout the story. A variety of hot men (and another woman), and the heroine’s escape from a life of ‘lights-out, minty-fresh’ sex, before she finds ‘the one’. Not to mention an exploration of the difference between being dominant and being an asshole, and of the nature of the BDSM ‘punishment’ game and what it means to ‘win’ or ‘lose’.

But this is no formula erotic romance with a bit of trendy spanking thrown in. Dark Secret Love is semi-autobiographical, said to be based on Tyler’s private diaries. Which bits are real, which bits embellished, which pure fiction, and what has been left out, the reader cannot know. But the novel has a matter-of-fact realism at its core. Every description of the BDSM elements rings true. Samantha is no cardboard cut-out; she’s a normal, complicated, contradictory woman who knows she’s sexually submissive and knows what she wants from a man. And as her love story develops, so does her life as a writer penning stories of kinky fantasies and further blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction.

The book has a tone of no-nonsense honesty and a fast pace with a terse style. In my notes as I read it, I wrote ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’, for Samantha gets through quite a list of encounters. I also wrote ‘certainly not romanticised (thank fuck!)’ for it is a gritty and sometimes challenging read. But despite its spareness, the novel is bursting with the sort of detail that makes it compelling, keep-you-up-at-night reading. At one point, one of her lovers, Nate, is encouraging her to develop her writing career and he says, ‘Your writing has this sort of breathlessness to it. You can tell there’s a soul behind the words.’ And if Nate says that of Samantha, then I’d say it of Tyler.

Samantha charts her life from high school, concentrating on her search for fulfilment of her kinky sexuality and her development as a writer. She has some fun with a couple of dominant guys before settling down to three messed-up years with Byron. Byron is dominant in all the wrong ways, making Samantha feel she is always a failure, while also making her ashamed of her sexual desires. He is the ‘normal’, socially acceptable guy she thinks she is meant to fall for and settle down with. Fortunately, she breaks free of his cycle of soul-crushing manipulation and gets what she needs from other men, eventually committing to Jack.

Now, here’s a little conundrum I suffered as a reader: I didn’t always like Jack, the hero of the tale. And if this was formula romance, I would not be surprised or particularly perturbed by that. But now I’m worried that it’s a real person I’m not always liking and this throws me into some strange metaphysical paradox because if he's Samantha's happily ever after, then I want to like him. One example of him bothering me is when Jack and Samantha get together for a second time, she is already seeing housemate Nate, who is portrayed as a really decent guy. And Jack gets annoyed because Samantha wants to do the decent thing and explain to Nate what’s happening. To me, it felt like Jack was annoyed at Samantha for having integrity.

But at its heart, that conflict is what you would expect from a realistic story, a possibly real-life story, rather than the erotic romance formula of 'chuck in a conflict for your characters to overcome'. This is a tale of the development of a deeply BDSM relationship between two realistic, complicated people. A relationship that gives the participants nowhere to hide, a relationship in which nothing can be secret and feelings cannot be buried – shame, desire, joy, hurt, jealousy – and in which each partner is laid bare to their core. And that’s a very brave thing to share with the world at all, wherever the text lies on the line from fiction to reality.

I was given a free copy of Dark Secret Love: A Story of Submission to review by publisher Cleis Press. You can buy it in paperback or ebook at Cleis Press, Amazon, and Amazon UK.

Wednesday, 14 August 2013

Review: Banging Rebecca by Alison Tyler

Ok, so this story starts out quite standard. The old fantasy of the guy in the band actually noticing the girl who fancies him and them getting it on in an alleyway. From there they move quickly on to satisfyingly kinky sex at his place. And of course, their kinks happen to be perfectly compatible and they understand each other without having to have what I like to call 'The Talk'. It's tightly written, with some well-chosen background details of the Los Angeles night. And it's just fantasy-land enough for me to think, 'well, this isn't very safe, but hey, it's not real.' And it's just realistic enough for me to... well let's say, read on, and leave the rest to the imagination.

So far, so nicely escapist. In an inescapable bondage-y kind of way. Reminds me of the teenage crush I have on the singer from Biffy Clyro; the video for their single The Captain doesn't help - there's rope and flogging and a sort of cage thing below decks on a ship. But I digress. 

Tyler then ups the ante in a scene with a cane. You've got the old 'sub has to count the blows' theme. Well, Tyler reverses the order. Sub counts, then Dom hits. This messed with my head. It's just so different from the standard way of doing things. It's a pretty simple switch, really, but massively effective. It's the sort of thing that, as a writer, you wish you'd thought of already. And as a reader, putting yourself in the heroine's shoes - by which I mean cuffs - it's damn hot. 

So, you've been surprised once as you get right into Rebecca's head while this is going on. And the writing helps you get right there, deep into how she's feeling and what she's thinking. But then things ramp up a gear again. You see, it's the drummer of the band Rebecca's been playing with so far. But there's a singer too, you know. A singer she has a little fling with too. And when the two guys find out... What happens next? I don't want to spoil it. What happens next is very much in keeping with the escapism of the story, riding the edge of believability but just about pulling it off. What happens next surprised me - and believe me, my filthy imagination knows few boundaries. What happens next was off-the-scale hot, unexpected in all the right ways.

Banging Rebecca's a short read; I got through it in the bath. I'm sure there are other activities you could do in the same time frame that don't require the use of both hands. But don't be fooled by the opening into thinking it's just another formulaic casual hook-up story with a bit of dodgy kink thrown in. It's so much more than that. And then some. 


I bought Banging Rebecca at Amazon UK.

Monday, 5 August 2013

Story news

I think I'm finally safe to reveal that I have a couple of stories coming out in Cleis Press anthologies over the coming months. I have one called Tight Rope Walker in Best Bondage Erotica 2014 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. And another of my alter egos, James McArthur, has got one in there called No Strings Attached. 

I'm excited by the cover, which is saying something. With many erotica and romance covers I have to bite my tongue and silently repeat to myself the words: "I must not bitch." Then I go over to the Bad Romance Covers blog for a giggle. But this cover - and, I'm now realising, Cleis' covers in general - does it for me. It has mystery, it has subtlety (which I always have to look up the spelling of), it has rope... The anthology is due out in January. You can preorder it at Amazon or Amazon UK.

I also have one or two coming out in Alison Tyler's anthologies. My tale, Kneading Lessons, features a hot baker in the collection Shhh! Don't Tell Anyone... Erotic Fantasies about Sexy Occupations. And since I've just posted the contract I guess I can also tell you I have one called Doing It by the Book in Bound for Trouble. So expect more book release excitement from me soon.

Monday, 15 July 2013

The long and the short of it: Part 2

Okay, I give up. 

Last September, I wrote about a novel I'd started work on but was struggling to progress because of all the short stories I was writing. I now have another novel and novella started, but, guess what, I'm struggling to make any progress because of all the short stories I'm writing. 

So, I've decided to stop worrying about it, admit that I actually love doing the shorts and let the longer stories sit. I'm going go all taoist on this one and just go with the flow. I'm sure there'll come a point at some time in the future when I look at my list of stories and realise there are no current calls for submissions that have tickled my fancy. And in that natural lull, I will sit down and concentrate on something longer. Honest. 

The thing is, short stories are great for trying out new things, playing around and having fun. (Which sounds like a recipe for a good night in, too...) These are the calls I have been unable to ignore at the moment, although meeting some of the looming deadlines is going to be a close one while that thing some people call real life (not to mention the odd good night in) keeps getting in the way:

Men of the Manor (Cleis Press, ed Rob Rosen) August 1st.
Romance between wealthy aristocrats and their hard-working estate staff with a pre-WWI backdrop. I have a kitchen garden in mind.

The Big Book of Domination (Cleis Press, ed DL King) August 1st.
I need to explain? I reckon the title says it all. And it says: 'Get writing - now!'

Locked Up (Storm Moon Press) August 31st
Men. And chastity devices. What's not to like? Scroll down through the calls to find this one.

Sapphic Smut in the City (House of Erotica, ed Lucy Felthouse and Kev Mitnik) January 1st
I'm not really a city kinda girl. But I have a great idea from a visit to Paris years ago, that gives a very different view of life in the city of love.

Smut by the Sea vol 3 (House of Erotica, ed Lucy Felthouse and Victoria Blisse) March 31st
I am, however, a seaside kind of woman. And my writer's brain is brimming with ideas for coastal fun. 

And if you're very quick, there's still time to get a short in to Alison Tyler's call for bondage stories. She wants 500 to 1,000-word pieces and has extended the deadline to July 25th.


Wednesday, 23 January 2013

Review: Cute Boy Gets Squeezed by D.L. King


A big thank you to Alison Tyler, who's let me take part in the blog tour for her new anthology The Big Book of Bondage. Check out her blog, Trollop with a Laptop, for links to all the other reviews. I'm talking about D.L. King's story, one of 25 in this new offering from Cleis Press. So without further ado:

The real star of this story is not endearingly submissive Cute Boy or his kooky-but-caring play pal Evangeline; it’s a piece of equipment. The vac bed, to be precise – latex sheets out of which the air is sucked leaving the sub cocooned so tightly they can’t even twitch but with every contour of their body on display. I’d hazard a guess that most bedroom kinksters don’t have one and have probably never encountered one for real (go on, hop over to Google Images, I'll wait). And that’s what makes this story so irresistible. It’s the stuff of fantasy for most, rendered real in tantalising detail. The description of Cute Boy’s experience in the vac bed gains weight from the sparseness of description elsewhere; what the characters look like is largely left to the reader’s imagination.

The story has an easy, conversational style from the first-person viewpoint of Cute Boy. That’s in keeping with the casual nature of the relationship involved. There’s no romance and little emotional interaction here. But set against that is the intensity of Cute Boy’s physical need and his experience with this piece of equipment. Eve is no stereotypical Domme either; she’s more of a facilitator for his pleasure. She sounds more than a little bonkers and for Cute Boy there’s a thrill in the anticipation, the uncertainty, over what she’s going to come up with while knowing that, fundamentally, she’s not dangerous. Although there’s no seduction involved, she does constantly reassure him in her light-hearted way that everything is going to be ‘fun’.

It’s common for BDSM stories to try to untangle the psychology of submission or look for some reason for it in a person’s past experience. But that assumes a narrative viewpoint from outside of the world of kink, a place where justification and rationale might be demanded. Right at the start of the story, King openly dismisses this when Cute Boy begins to explain his kink and trails off with the words ‘yada yada yada’. But the whole story is, in a wonderfully subtle way, an exposition of a physical and psychological need that, in this case, seems to be completely natural. There are several moments when Cute Boy (who also goes by the name Pete!) has reservations – when Eve points out his ‘nice cock’ to her housemate, when there is the suggestion that said housemate is going to take photos of him, when she introduces the butt plug. But his expressions of unease are overwhelmed by his need. And when he sees the vac bed, his deep desire to feel its embrace shuts off the noise in his head and renders him hopelessly, sweetly, compliant. Add in a couple of toys and it leads to an orgasm the likes of which he’s never had before.

Cute Boy Gets Squeezed appears to be a simple, casual tale, but beneath its easy style lies an intensity of experience and a depth of knowledge about the nature of submission and restraint that is anything but.