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.

Smut news

Feeling thoroughly stuffed yet? I've eaten too much, drunk too much and am looking forward to getting back to what passes for normality round these parts. 

I have some new year news for you. My fellow editor, Kev Blisse, and I seem to have underestimated the impact NaNoWriMo would have on our call for submissions for More Smut for Chocoholics. It looked like about 99% of my writerly contacts were taking part. We extended the deadline once, but with Christmas then looming we find ourselves still in need of some more chocolicious stories. 

We've now made a new deadline of March 31st 2014 with a view to launching the book alongside Smut by the Sea III at the Smut by the Sea event in Scarborough in June. All the details of the call are here.

I'd particularly like to see some unusual takes on the theme - a bit of fantasy, sci-fi, historical or futuristic. Let your imaginations go wild. And I'd like to thank everyone who has submitted so far for your hard work, and for being patient with us!

News round-up

You wait weeks for something good to blog about, then everything comes along at once. It's like the 53C along Derby Road. 

News on the More Smut for Chocoholics front. We've extended our deadline to December 15th. That's so all the folks doing NaNoWriMo will still have time to submit. What better way to wind down from a month of epic writing than with a nice little, light-hearted bit of smut? All the details are at the Smutters website.

In other news, I have a new story out. 'Twenty-four Surprises' is my contribution to the ebook Winter Warmers from House of Erotica. Ten stories with a festive feel. The call asked us to think about the warm glow of a fire, mulled wine, the colour red etc. So obviously I wrote a spanking story. No brainer. It's the tale of a couple's first foray into spanking 'proper' and centres around the treats in the advent calendars they've made for each other. I'll be back to tell you more about that one soon.

Winter Warmers is out now at All Romance, Amazon, Amazon UK and other online retailersl

But I promise you some Shakespearotica titillation in my next post. I might introduce you to the wonderful Orlando. I think I have a crush on my own character. It's because he's a bit scruffy. Like Han Solo.  

Divine and dangerous

Four weeks to go until the deadline for More Smut for Chocoholics, which I'm editing with the fantabulous Kev Blisse. All the details are at the Smutters website and the deadline is November 25th. Here's the sweet cover Kev's come up with too. It makes me hungry just looking at it. 

Need some inspiration? Here are some chocolate facts:

• Cocoa beans are the seeds inside the fleshy pods of the cocoa tree. So chocolate’s fruit. If you ignore what happens to it after those pods are harvested.
• The cocoa tree was regarded as sacred by the Aztecs and its Latin name Theobroma cacao means ‘food of the gods’.
• But it's West Africa which is now the centre of chocolate production, with 70% of the world's cocoa being grown there.
• Many of today's big confectionery companies were originally set up with Quaker backing, because chocolate was seen as a minor vice that could replace the much more sinful alcohol.
• It can be good for you – particularly dark chocolate – mostly because of the antioxidants it contains. Of course, it also contains large amounts of sugar and fat...
• Chocolate can be addictive because it contains several mood-enhancing chemicals.
• And that could explain why it’s been thought of as an aphrodisiac. In fact, the Aztecs banned women from consuming chocolate, such were its dangerous powers.

Thank you to everyone who's sent in their stories already. Mine's all done and dusted, but I can think of another half a dozen stories or so I could tease out of those facts... And if you're still hungry for more, check out the Divine Chocolate website's fact page.

Chocolate inspiration

Okay, you might think you've stumbled upon a very different blog all of a sudden, because I'm going to give you a recipe. But this is not Saturday Kitchen and this is not any old recipe and I'm more of a domestic demon than goddess. This is a seriously sexy recipe. It's very, very rich, very indulgent and if you make it for someone they will very soon be begging you for... well, whatever you want them to beg you for. I'm sharing it to inspire some rich and tasty smut for our call for submissions... and to tease my More Smut for Chocoholics co-editor Kev 'Mitnik' Blisse. So get your wooden spoons at the ready...

Cherries, Chocolate and Cream
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Serves 4

500g ripe cherries, halved and stoned
25g caster sugar

150g dark chocolate, broken up
30g unsalted butter, cubed
3 large eggs, separated
20g caster sugar

200ml double cream

1 Stick the cherries in a pan with the 25g of sugar and gently heat until they start to release their juices (nudge nudge), then set aside to cool.
2 Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Leave to cool a little, then stir in the egg yolks.
3 Whisk up the egg whites and sugar into a soft meringue consistency, then gently fold into the chocolate mix so it's fully combined but without knocking out all the air. 
4 Pour the mousse into bowls or wine glasses or ramekins or whatever other fancy receptacle you have in your cupboards and put them in the fridge for an hour or so.
5 Lightly whip the cream (wink wink) until it holds soft peaks (fnarr fnarr). Spoon a dollop onto each mousse and top with a spoonful of cherries and juice.
6 Enjoy and write us a story. We're talking tales of indulgence and wicked delight in consuming and using chocolate in just about any way your imagination can think of. And it's under the Smut banner, which means light-hearted, saucy, sexy fun, maybe with a hint of humour.

Length: 3,000-6,000 words
Deadline: November 25th, 2013
We're open to any pairings/menage and any erotic genre as long as chocolate is a main feature.

All the details are over at the Smutters website http://smutters.co.uk/more-smut-for-chocoholics

The recipe is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Three Good Things.

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.

So about that book I'm editing...

I hope you all spotted my Call for Submissions for More Smut for Chocoholics. I've been asked by Smutter Kev Mitnik Blisse to come on board as a guest editor. And it's my first time. Yes, I edit stories for folks who find me at www.tillyhunter.co.uk. But I've never helped edit an anthology before, which is a whole different ball game.

I'm reading the first Smut for Chocoholics at the moment and thinking about what I'll be looking for. It's not just about what I, personally, enjoy reading, but about getting a balance of stories to appeal to a general erotica readership. So I'll be looking out for the sweetly romantic stories as well as those with a little light-hearted kink. Stories that can add a touch of humour without killing the heat level are always good as are those that come at the theme from a surprise angle. I guess what it comes down to is that most readers can enjoy most types of erotica as long as it's well written, imaginative and original. 

The whole project has emerged after I met Kev and Victoria Blisse, and fellow smutketeer Lucy Felthouse, at Smut by the Sea in Scarborough. And it's made me think about how meeting people face to face for a day or two is worth probably about a thousand hours of Facebook, Twitter and blog exchanges. I hate the word 'networking' but I guess that's what I did in Scarborough, if, for 'networking' you read having a laugh, nattering, drinking tea and beer, sharing the odd innuendo and occasionally remembering to say 'oh, here, have a business card'.

Call for submissions: Smut for Chocoholics

More Smut for Chocoholics is being edited by Kev 'Mitnik' Blisse and me! Hurrah. Kev asked me to join him as a guest editor after we met at Smut by the Sea in Scarborough. His lovely wife Victoria and the fabulous Lucy Felthouse are busy on other projects, so Kev asked if I'd like to help him choose some stories about sex and chocolate. It's a no brainer. 

More Smut for Chocoholics follows on from the success of the first Smut for Chocoholics antho, which is out now. We're talking indulgence and taking wicked delight in the erotic consumption and use of chocolate. Think taste, feel, smell. 

The anthology will be in the spirit of the Smut series, so it's all about light-hearted fun. No pain, darkness, cheating or angst. A little light bondage or a playful spank might find their way in, but nothing heavy or edgy. We're happy to receive f/f, m/m, f/m and menage stories.

Word count: 3,000-6,000

Deadline: 25th November 2013

Payment: Royalties split 40% between the contributing authors, paid once individual authors reach a £20 threshold.

Publisher: House of Erotica

Expected release: Feb/March 2014

We want your stories in Times New Roman, 12pt, double spaced, each paragraph indented half an inch. Double quotation marks for dialogue. 

Send to choc@smutters.co.uk as an attachment with the filename: your story - your pen name - chocoholic.doc

Include your pen name, a short bio, word count and story genre in the body of your email. 

For more Smutters anthologies and calls for submissions check out smutters.co.uk. The first Smut for Chocoholics is available at All Romance, Amazon and Amazon UK.