Excerpt: Hungry For More

And here, in the final excerpt in this summer series of Cleis Press magnificence, is a taster from My Pillar-Box Red Cock, my story in Hungry For More from new Cleis imprint Tempted Romance, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. It's a pegging story, which is probably all the introduction it needs:

When he drops his jeans, bends over and shows me the base of the plug sticking out of his ass, I just can’t believe he’s been doing this without me. After what I said that drunken night a few weeks ago. And I thought he’d called me up to the bedroom to admire our new rug. I heard him vacuuming ready to roll it out. It’s hand-woven by Berber nomads don’t you know, one hundred per cent wool from Atlas mountain ewes.

But I’m not admiring the weaving. Instead I’m staring at my husband’s ass as he stands on the newly rolled out rug, having left all his clothes in an untidy pile in one corner of it. I’m staring at the butt plug he’s put in his ass. Or rather, it’s looking at me, one pearlescent blue pupil surrounded by the iris-like filament of his asshole. It twitches a little, the eye winking out some Morse code that only I can understand. It’s saying, “Grab hold of me in your sweaty little fingers, draw me slowly out, stretch his hole with my bulbous girth, push me back in and watch the muscles close, fuck him with me.” Oh, I understand exactly what my husband’s cheap vinyl butt plug is saying to me.

“So, um, when did you get that?”

“About a fortnight ago.” He’s still bent over, hands on his knees, craning his neck round to talk to me. “Actually it was twelve days ago, exactly. Which means I’m up to an hour at a time. I started off wearing it for five minutes and increased gradually.”

We’re standing in our bedroom in broad daylight on a Sunday morning discussing how Ryan has been training his butt for penetration with military precision without telling me. I need to backtrack. Quite far back. I also need to stop staring at the plug and wondering if its round base works as a suction cup.

“Honey, I’m pretty sure you said you didn’t want anything near your ass. You do remember that night, right? That’s why I haven’t mentioned it again.”

That night. It was a few weeks ago. Cabernet sauvignon had been on buy-one-get-one-free, so of course we drank both bottles. Then we started talking dirty. “Go on, there must be some fantasy you haven’t let on about,” I dared him. His turned out to be the relatively mundane one of wanting to watch me with another woman. I’d do it for him, but I was disappointed he came up with something so predictable. He can be pretty filthy at times. But my confession put a bit of a dampener on the evening. He sobered up pretty quick when I said, “I’d really love to fuck your ass with a strap-on.”

Oops.

You can find out the full line-up, links to all sales outlets and read the Introduction over atthe book's Tumblr page.

You can buy Hungry for More at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

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.

Excerpt: Can't Get Enough

On to the third excerpt in my mini erotica-fest. This Cleis Press anthology is veteran erotica author Tenille Brown's first outing as an editor, and it's one hell of a theme to begin with. Tenille appealed for stories to fulfil this brief:

Have you ever been so hot for your lover that you decided not to go to the dinner you were invited to? Or maybe you got so turned on watching her work the room at a party you had to duck into a coat closet during cocktails. Remember the time you called in sick to work because you simply couldn't put down your vibrator?

Can't Get Enough will contain just these types of stories. An anthology filled with tales of insatiable desire, authors will bring forth stories brimming with sex, kinks and fetishes that you simply can't get enough of, sex you want so much that you can't make it home without having to swing by a shady motel or pull off into a vacant lot.

I realised this could be interpreted in many different ways. As a keen but very amateur runner, I had come across events such as the Tough Mudder obstacle races. And so I started to think about a couple of sporty guys training for such an event. And how that would be with a BDSM slant. And what might happen to distract them during the race. Here's the start of the story:

Dean was ahead already. I admired his ass as his soaked shorts clung to its contours. He was always faster than me, although in a race like this anything could happen. We’d trained for months for the ultimate endurance test, The Toughest Ten, bored of marathons and ironman triathlons. It was Dean who first turned me into a fitness freak. After spotting him lifting weights at the gym I found myself going more and more often in the hope of bumping into him and being able to watch him putting his magnificent body through its paces. It was the body of an underwear model. Or perhaps a sculpted Greek god.

One day, after we’d graduated to swapping names and a terse hello, he said to me, “Hey Joe, how about doing a marathon with me?”

“Sure,” I said, before engaging brain. The most I ran was half an hour on the treadmill, never outdoors. I was just blessed with a naturally toned physique that looked like it saw the inside of a gym far more than my actual couple of hours a week. He soon realized this. But he was patient, quietly sharing training tips, chivvying me along when my spirits flagged and coaxing me to push myself. Without ever sounding patronizing.

I guess it was the chemistry between us. He wouldn’t have put up with me otherwise. Sometimes he slipped into sergeant major style, even name calling – “Come on you worthless faggot, get your butt moving before I order the lads to give you a beasting.” It was all play acting. He’d been in the army for a while. He told me he left because he enjoyed the rough treatment too much. He feared for his wellbeing. And that was the funny thing about our relationship. He was stronger, faster and could endure far more than me. But it was me who got to wrestle him to the floor, grab handfuls of his hair, slap him and call him my bitch. He responded in an immediate physical way, going weak at the knees, eager to drop and suck my cock or let me pound into his ass mercilessly.

“Fuck, Joe,” he’d say, “you do things to me. Things I haven’t been able to experience with any other man.”

He knew I’d be watching him as he pulled ahead in the Toughest Ten. It wasn’t just a run. It was a ten-mile course with ten obstacle stages – mud, ice, fire, water, walls and more to crawl through, swim, wade or climb. Designed by the military’s elite, it put those crazy enough to attempt it through hell and provided the best endorphin buzz available without mind-altering substances.

Our training had covered most of the types of challenge we faced. More thoroughly than necessary, to be honest. I’d confidently bet none of our competitors had submitted to having their balls zapped in order to prepare for the electric fence field.

You can buy the book at Amazon US and Amazon UK and check out the Can't Get Enough blog for reviews, interviews, excerpts and more. 

Excerpt: The Big Book of Submission II

Another excerpt, as promised. A teaser. A taste... of Toasted Marshmallows, the second of my stories in The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales. In which two submissive guys realise they have more in common than beer and football when their girlfriends organise a little outing to the forest:

I stare at my best friend’s cock. I’ve never seen it before. But from this position on my knees I’m getting a close-up view. It’s around the same erect length as my own, but a little thicker. Its head is darker.

“I said suck it.” Karen repeats the order. She doesn’t like having to repeat an order and I don’t like letting her down. I stick my tongue out, shape it around Nathan’s head and guide it into my mouth. I’d use my hands, but she’s cuffed them behind me. And linked them to my ankle restraints for good measure.

It’s such a strange sensation. Like a moleskin cover on a hardback book. Soft skin sliding over rigid, engorged flesh. Of course I’ve felt the same thing before in my hand. I’m a 27-year-old guy – I feel my own erections most mornings in the shower. But to have someone else’s in my mouth, stretching my lips and pushing my jaw down. Well. I suck, running my tongue up the underside. It seems the thing to do. I realize I’ve never analyzed the precise movements Karen’s mouth makes to cause my shaft to stiffen and pulse to climax. She only does it when I’ve been a good boy and obeyed her satisfactorily. I’m hoping for a reward today, more than the toasted marshmallows she’s promised from our backwoods campfire. But if she punishes me instead? I’ll still enjoy it.

"You’re doing well, sweetie,” she says, placing a hand on the back of my head and pushing me on until I cough. Nathan, one of the few old college pals I’ve kept in touch with, has no choice but to stay in position. He’s standing against a maple, arms pinned back around the trunk and more rope wrapping his torso against the rough bark. A thick stick between his teeth, tied in place around the back of his head, gags him. I watched his girlfriend, Rosie, put him place while I knelt in the leafmold waiting to be told what to do.

For more on the line-up, reviews and excerpts, check out the The Big Book of Submission Tumblr.

Available now at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Excerpt: The Big Book of Submission I

I have two stories in The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales. Two lovely little tales nestled amongst a cornucopia of erotic magnificence. One is called Training My Dom and tells how a submissive woman gradually initiates her previously vanilla fella into dominating her: 

He started it. We’d flirted by text for weeks. Filthy texts: “I want to feel your hard cock deep in my throat,” “I’m going to lick your pussy until you scream...”

“Tell me where your imagination’s been today,” I wrote during a quiet moment at work.

“I thought about some handcuffs,” came the reply. His mind was obviously not on office business either.

I asked for clarification: “For you or for me?”

“I was thinking of using them on you xx.”

Halle-fucking-lujah.

Now, that's a pretty short excerpt, you might by thinking to yourself, but never fear; you can actually read the whole story for free on two retailer sites. You can choose the apostrophe-free version at Powell's Books, or the version with apostrophes but a little squeezed on the layout at Publishers Group West.

I'll be bringing you an excerpt from my other story in the antho, Toasted Marshmallows, tomorrow. You can buy The Big Book of Submission at  Amazon US and Amazon UK or at other outlets listed on the book's Tumblr page.

Out now: Hungry for More

Hungry for More: Romantic Fantasies for Women is now available, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press imprint Tempted Romance. It contains my pegging story, My Pillar-Box Red Cock. Cos I like to stretch the boundaries of what's considered romantic, you know. 

Here's the blurb:

Romance is all about fantasies of love that ignite the imagination and light a fire inside. Love and sexual fantasy have always been intimately intertwined, and this collection of steamy stories shows just how well the two can merge. Combining rich and explicit imagery with classic love stories, the best writers of erotic romance bring to life tales that can be read aloud in bed. From long-lost lovers reunited to love at first sight to romance rekindled, award-winning editor Rachel Kramer Bussel offers succulent stories that will quicken heartbeats and appeal to the most romantic of souls.

You can find out the full line-up, links to all sales outlets and read the Introduction over at the book's Tumblr page.

You can buy Hungry for More at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

And yes, that's another excerpt I owe you. I'm going to line them all up and fire them at you one a day. Soon. Very soon.

I got reviewed!

I'm going to blow my own trumpet. Does that sound rude to you? I'm not sure how it works as a euphemism. Anyway, one of my stories, Toasted Marshmallows, from The Big Book of Submission, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press, was reviewed by Clitical's Jenne. And it's a rather positive review, saying things like this: 

I adore Toasted Marshmallows, and have read it more than a few times since I first discovered it. I love everything about this particular story, the writing, the plot and the characters.

Wowser. Also, this:

I feel like I’m inside this guy's head as I read the story, and that for me is what makes this story such a pleasure to read.

Jenne also has this to say about the anthology as a whole:

The stories have that one thread [submission] running through them, but they are so varied in how that theme is executed by the various writers.

For the full review, head over to Clitical. 

You can buy The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales at Amazon US, Amazon UK, and all your usual smutty bookstores.

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.

Out now... The Big Book of Submission

It's all happening this week. Also out now in the US is The Big Book of Submission, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press. I believe the release date for the UK is July 21st. This bumper book of 69 kinky tales contains two of my stories, Toasted Marshmallows, and Training My Dom.

Here's the blurb:

Submission takes many forms in this collection of 69 short stories, from straining in bondage to taking a spanking, being put on display, and beyond. By turns bratty and worshipful, these submissives will go to great lengths to fulfill their naughtiest fantasies and are rewarded splendidly by their masters and mistresses. A student returns to show his former teacher who’s really in charge, a photo shoot becomes an opportunity for erotic games, and a man revels in his wife’s past as a former dominatrix. These brats, masochists, and hungry-for-sensation subs go above and beyond for the ones they adore, pushing themselves to new limits while their devious dominants put them through their paces. Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, these short stories sizzle with the tension of erotic power play, commands followed, and service willingly performed.

For more on the line-up, reviews and excerpts, check out the The Big Book of Submission Tumblr.

Available now at Amazon US. Coming soon elsewhere.

New release... Can't Get Enough

It's release day for Tenille Brown's first foray into anthology editing with this Cleis Press collection, Can't Get Enough. It contains my sweet little story Mud and Pain. And by sweet, I mean two guys getting up to all kinds of masochistic shenanigans in preparation for a Tough Mudder-style obstacle race. I'll bring you a little excerpt soon.

Here's the blurb: 

Veteran erotica author and first-time editor Tenille Brown has collected stories for Can’t Get Enough that highlight the essence of insatiable desire. With contributions from authors like Rachel Kramer Bussel, Jacqueline Applebee, Giselle Renarde, and featuring a brand-new Becoming Hers (formerly Dominatrix Fantasy) story from New York Times bestseller Shoshanna Evers, this is a book full of diverse and dynamic characters who are bold and daring even when being sexily subtle. The authors here knock the Can’t Get Enough theme right out of the park with stories that will leave readers as breathless as the characters they’re reading about, dying for more.

Find out more about the book, including the full line-up of authors, reviews and links to all stops on the launch blog tour over at the Can't Get Enough blog.

You can buy the book at Amazon US. Coming soon for buyers elsewhere!

Big Book of Submission news

It's nearly time... for The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales. This Cleis Press offering, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, is out next month and is already getting some fab reviews. Check out the book's Tumblr page for links to those, along with news, dates of readings, excerpts and pre-order information. It has one hell of a line-up of authors, with fellow Brits including Kay Jaybee, Lucy Felthouse and Nicole Gestalt. 

Here are two little extracts from my stories in the book. Check out this post for a taste of all 69.

Training My Dom

So there we were, isolated in the middle of nowhere. Where no one could hear me scream, as he put it. I was standing naked on a hard slate floor beneath the mezzanine bedroom, arms high up my back in a box tie, rope wrapping them tight against my torso. More rope strung up from there to the bars of the balcony above, pulling me onto my toes. Ball gag, silk blindfold and silver bar nipple clamps screwed tight—and then screwed some more.

Toasted Marshmallows

I stare at my best friend’s cock. I’ve never seen it before. But from this position—on my knees—I’m getting a close-up view. It’s around the same erect length as my own, but a little thicker. Its head is darker.

“I said, suck it.” Karen repeats the order. She doesn’t like having to repeat an order and I don’t like letting her down. I stick my tongue out, shape it around Nathan’s head and guide it into my mouth. I’d use my hands, but she’s cuffed them behind me—and linked them to my ankle restraints for good measure.

Dungeon Crawl - Karada!

Hello and welcome back to my corner of the Romancing the Kink Dungeon Crawl blog hop. This week, I'm turning my attention to Best Bondage Erotica 2014, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press. Whatever your taste in bondage, there's something here for everyone. My story, Tight Rope Walker, involves a Sunday stroll in the English countryside. Spiffing. Oh, and a quantity of rope.

“Why don’t you tie me into a harness I can hide under my clothes while we go out for a walk?” I’d said to him earlier that week, fed up of waiting for grey January skies to clear and the warmth of the sun to return. “You could even put on my collar and cuffs. If I wear a scarf and gloves no-one will see a thing. But it will make me horny as hell all the time we’re walking. And then it will be there, ready, when we get home again.”

Me and my big ideas. “Hmm, sounds like a plan,” he’d said. “Forecast’s dry for the weekend. We should do it on Sunday. We’re going to my mother’s for dinner Saturday, remember?”

I remembered. It felt like a very long evening of nodding in the right places and laughing and saying, “oh yes, I know what you mean,” rather than “oh just shut up so I can fantasize about rope.”

We’d got up late and had a big cooked breakfast, as befits a lazy Sunday morning. Then, around noon, Jake said to me, “Pajamas off. Time for our walk.” God, I’d thought that moment would never come and was out of my PJs in seconds and standing, waiting, in the middle of the living room rug.

He put the collar around my neck first, as always. My collar. One-inch thick leather that buckled into place. No lock, because I would never dream of attempting to remove it myself. But it did have four D-rings placed around it to cater for all eventualities. He put similar leather cuffs on my wrists, then my ankles. These ones had simple karabiner-type clips to attach them to each other. If I was feeling brattish, I could escape them. Not easily but it wasn’t impossible. That’s why Jake always used rope if he wanted me properly helpless.

Anyway, he moved on to the karada next. It had its usual effect on me, making my pussy pulse and my knees weak from the moment I felt the rope draped down the front of my body. As Jake pulled each wrap through the vertical strands, the vibrations went straight to my clit. I rocked my hips, smiling at the utterly delicious pressure there. He was careful not to tie it too tight. Once he’d done I put on my walking outfit, all sensible shower-proof fabrics, sturdy shoes with big grips and my winter woolens – hat, scarf, gloves. No panties though. And I pulled on a sporty crop top instead of trying to do up a bra strap over the ropes around my ribcage. As I moved around the house, up and down stairs and from room to room, I felt the harness hug my pussy snugly and imagined it doing so on our walk.

An InLinkz Link-up

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

Tumblr page

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

Blog page

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
Tumblr page

Rope and the great British countryside

I can't wait for my author copy of Best Bondage Erotica 2014 to arrive. I've been reading about all the stories on the book's Tumblr site, where authors are talking about their inspiration and sharing their favourite lines from their stories. And every single one sounds hot as caramelised sugar (and I should know, having suffered a popcorn-related injury recently). 

My story is called Tight Rope Walker and it focuses on two things: a karada tie and a walk up a hill. At the time I was planning the story, I happened upon this blog post by Fulani, which is a practical guide to tying a karada and proved to be most useful for research purposes. Most useful indeed. (And I've just realised he follows the word with an exclamation mark in the title, thus: Karada! That's how it always appears in my mind, like Oklahoma! for some reason.) 

Obviously, the anthology is about bondage. But there are just so many avenues you can go down to write a bondage story. Different styles, different purposes, different equipment, different relationships, different levels of experience, different mindsets... The funny thing is that you can't just write a description of ropes and knots and the process of tying. My story takes the idea of this quite elaborate tie, which creates a sort of rope corset, and then takes it out for a walk. 

One of my new year's resolutions as a writer is: Write less, walk more. I find many things - writer's block, backache, general grumpiness, existential angst - can be solved by going for a walk, preferably somewhere with a few trees or rocks or a bit of water. My characters take a walk up the Wrekin, a hill in Shropshire, England, with the karada, hidden under winter layers, being their delicious little secret. 

Best Bondage Erotica 2014, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel and published by Cleis Press, is now out in paperback and ebook at Amazon, or for pre-order at Amazon.co.uk.

And for writers, Rachel also has a new submissions call for Best Bondage Erotica 2015.

Out now: Best Bondage Erotica 2014

New year, new release! Best Bondage Erotica 2014, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, is out now at Amazon.com. For co.uk-ers it's slated for publication in March. 

It's a collection of 21 stories from authors both well-known and new, exploring the theme in a variety of tantalising ways. It's currently available as a real, kissable paperback. And as it’s published by Cleis it has this rather lovely cover.

Here's the blurb:

Rachel Kramer Bussel ties her readers up in knots each year as they anticipate the very best BDSM stories of the year. And, she does not disappoint, defying the odds, and occasionally gravity, with tales of bondage at its best. These whip-smart tales of domination, submission, spanking, and other highly imaginative acts keep readers in a frenzy. Best Bondage Erotica 2014 features 21 hot bondage tales that titillate from the bedroom to the dungeon and beyond. Handpicked by best-selling erotica editor Bussel, these kinky stories show and tell exactly what it means to wield the special power of being in charge of someone else. These characters manipulate rope, handcuffs, leather straps, a St. Andrew's cross, a chair, and, in Raziel Moore's "My Own Device," a special contraption crafted just for bondage, with the ultimate aim of pleasing each partner. Here, bondage takes place behind secret doors, at sex parties, at the office, on a mountain hike, and, of course, at home.

I’ll talk more about karadas and my story, 'Tight Rope Walker' (the mountain hike one), very soon.

There is much more info, including author interviews on the BBE2014 Tumblr page.

Buy at Amazon.com or Cleis, or pre-order at Amazon.co.uk.

Review: Big Book of Orgasms

This one does what it says on the tin, as they say in the world of DIY. It’s a book (real or e), it’s big (69 stories big) and it’s focused sharply and overwhelmingly on orgasms. So what else could you possibly need to know?

I guess you’d want to know that the stories are fluently written, original and hot. Check, check and check. But I’m increasingly realising that this goes without saying in anthologies from Cleis Press. The stories are well chosen and professionally edited. So go buy it. What, you need more?

Oh, okay then, the book is addictive. You sit down and think, I’ll just read a couple before I go and do all those things on my to-do list. And then you think, just one more. Just one more. And before you know it, it’s way past your bedtime and all the things on your to-do list no longer seem like such high priorities. Each story is short, like an intense burst of orgasmic energy, which makes it all the more surprising when you realise how long you've spent with this book (and I say 'with' rather than 'reading' because of the likelihood of, er, interaction).

It’s all about orgasms. Yeah, I know, I said that already. And the title says that. But really, think about it. As a writer of erotica, I know how hard it is to describe an orgasm without them all sounding the same: the build-up of tension, the hardening of muscles, the release, the desperate search for a metaphor other than waves breaking on a shore. And how, sometimes, it’s better not to try to describe all the physical sensations at all. And how I've just described the female orgasm and forgotten all about the guys. Well, these 69 stories offer variety in the obvious sense - variety of genders, groupings, sexual acts, toys, vanilla and kink - but they also provide a whole new insight into orgasmic possibilities. They remind us just how many routes to la petite mort there are, and that no climax is ever quite the same as another. 

And, back in the spirit of DIY, there are a lot of solo stories, which is a such a refreshing change to the romance formula of couplings or the odd menage. It's a reminder that, yes having a partner or partners is all very nice, but it's not an essential requirement for sexual pleasure. How lovely, and empowering, and liberating, and other such self-help terms: we all have the wherewithal in our own fingertips (or the palms of our hands) to give ourselves joy in so many ways. And the chances are that if you read this book, you will. 

I received the Big Book of Orgasms: 69 Sexy Stories, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, to review from publisher Cleis Press. You can buy it at Amazon, Amazon UK, Cleis, iTunes and other major book stores.

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.