What’d I Miss?

So after a long, long hiatus, we’re back on track, and I’ve got a fair chunk of news!

In the first place, November and December are going to be taken up with writing two novellas for Ellora’s Cave. They accepted my vampire romance, and now I get to write two more for a triple release. I’m pretty excited, because I get to write stories and have some assurance that I will be making money off of them.

The vampire romance features two characters I like quite a bit, and they’re kind of messed up in the way that I think living forever makes you. One of the stories is going to be a very D/s encounter with the vampire who brought Daniel over originally, and the other is going to be a fairy captive story, though some part of me really wants to get very dark and make it a Prince Heathen retelling.*

One thing I am quite excited over is the fact that I will soon be doing sex toy reviews for the site, Vibrators.com. Every single dealing I’ve ever had with the folks there has been pleasant and supportive, and when the opportunity came up, I was pretty thrilled. I’m going to be getting the first three toys soon, and if you’re familiar with this blog at all, you can generally expect that I am going to be pretty blunt about what I like and don’t like. Also, you can probably expect a fair amount of trial, error and accident because, well, it’s me, and there’s no reason to do a thing gracefully when you can flail at it like a seal on dry land.

Let’s see, erotica writing has taken a bit of a back seat to the new phase of my career, where I’m a for-real freelancer with clients and everything. I’m hoping to get back in the swing of things because I have like eight or nine stories that are more or less fully plotted in my head, and four or five more that are about halfway done on the computer.

I’ve also realized that I’m a full time writer with two kinda-functional laptops. Thank god for friends with spare laptops and who will bully me into getting a new machine sooner rather than later, though. As a matter of fact, I am off to do that now, so yes, there will be a functional spacebar key in my future, yeeeeeeesssss.

Coming Soon:
Insertions and Musings
Sex Diaries: I THINK This Was a Good Idea
Vampire Sexy Times
Wait, What Erotica Do I Actually Like?

*The fact that I hesitated because this particular ballad is too dark should probably tell you something.

Blog Tour: Seductress

When it comes to succubi, I’m an easy sell. There’s something terrifying and wonderful about someone who comes when you call, who knows your desires better than you do, and is willing to play those desires like a violin. That’s what I think when I think about succubi, anyway, and when D. L. King released a call for succubus stories, I couldn’t resist.

I started off with a few different ideas. I had one about two succubi in love, another about a succubi and a European Crusader, and yet another about a particularly scholarly succubi who lurked in a university library. I wrote a bit on all of these things, but nothing stuck until I came up with the line that starts “After a Fall,” my contribution for Seductress.

During the long days of autumn in Hell, the blood rivers grow sluggish and even Caras, Hell’s great heart, beats more slowly.

That was how Aquila, the narrator of what is one of my favorite stories to date, opens the story. Aquila is a pride demon, one that others call Pride’s favorite son, and when it comes to discussions of which of the seven deadly sins is the most worthy, he has no doubt at all that it is his.

Of course, he makes the mistake of mentioning this to the new Queen of Lust, and she decides to test his resolve. Pride and lust are a fine match for one another, and by the end, Aquila has a new understanding of both.

Aquila was charming, both to me, and I suspect, to the Queen of Lust herself. It was less like writing than taking dictation, and the first time he spoke to the Queen of Lust, I knew exactly how the story was going to end.

As for the Queen herself, there was only so much I could say about her given that Aquila was firmly doing the talking. The story of how she killed her predecessor and came to her rank is one I hope I get a chance to tell some day, as is the one where she became a succubus in the first place.

You should read this story if you like arrogant men taken down a notch, willing, if not terribly intelligent surrender, word play, and some time spent in a Hell full of highly politicized devils.

You can pick up a copy of Seductress at Amazon or Barnes and Noble!

Blog Tour: Carnal Machines

Hello and welcome!

I seem to be the fifth stop on the blog tour for Carnal Machines, so please help yourself to some of the free fiction I’ve left out. Stay and check things out or hit my blogroll to see some of the sites.

“Deviant Devices,” my story for Carnal Machines, features a prostitute searching for a better position, a secretary who goes above and beyond his job description, and a machine that’s the bastard child of a fainting couch and something much less savory. This story is for you if you like exhibitionism, erotic machinery, a woman who knows what she likes and a man who likes to work with his hands.

Writing this story was fun; it went through about a dozen permutations before it settled on the one in the book. If you are curious about this process, well, it all started with an airship engineer and a gunner.

Steampunk is one of those things that sort of broadsided me. For a long time back in 2005 or so, it was this one thing that Miss Rat did. Then I started hearing that line about goths discovering brown and then boom, stripey socks, zepplins and alternative history everywhere.

Not that I minded. I’m a big fan of Victoriana and I keep the period erotic pieces The Pearl and The Way of a Man and His Maid on my shelf. Those have both taught me a lot.*

I hope to write more steampunk in the future. I think that there’s not enough non-English-oriented steampunk out there, which was why I was so happy to see Lisabet Sarai’s offering in Carnal Machines, “Her Own Devices,” which takes place in Hong Kong.** Also, I want to write a story that has an airship pirate in it. I never have and I feel like I am missing out.

Scroll to the bottom of this entry for an excerpt of “Deviant Devices” and don’t forget to check out the other stops on Carnal Machine’s Blog Tour!

May 1 D. L. King http://dlkingerotica.blogspot.com
May 2 Teresa Noelle Roberts http://teresanoelleroberts.blogspot.com
May 3 Kathleen Bradean http:/kathleenbradean.blogspot.com
May 4 Jay Lawrence http://jaylawrenceerotica.blogspot.com
May 5 Kannan Feng https://kannanfeng.wordpress.com
May 6 Essemoh Teepee http://www.smotp.com/html/blog.html
May 7 Elizabeth Schechter http://easchechter.wordpress.com/blog
May 8 Delilah Devlin http://delilahdevlin.com/blog
May 10 Renee Michaels https://alimom.wordpress.com/
May 11 Elias St. James http://dlkingerotica.blogspot.com
May 12 Lisabet Sarai http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com
May 13 Janine Ashbless http://janineashbless.blogspot.com
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Coming Soon:
Kannan Feng Updates Like a Responsible Adult
Kannan Feng Pays Her Goddamn Power Bill
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*Namely, they have both taught me that yes, it is possible to have too much flogging in a story. I did not know that before.
**I also have a little crush on her character Chris Barton in that story, but that’s neither here nor there. Ahem.

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“Deviant Devices” Excerpt

The phallus was screwed into one of the jointed mechanical arms and Mercer pivoted it around and bent it forward so that it was pointed squarely between her legs.

Victoria couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was a gorgeous toy, but she couldn’t ignore the metal arm behind it. It looked ready to impale her, and she lifted her head to look at Mercer, who was looking over the controls behind her head.

He caught her gaze and smiled reassuringly.

“This is going to make some noise,” he warned her. “Be ready.”
There was a series of clicks and then the machine began to whirr. It was not the loud, brutal clanking that she had been braced for, and she was aware of a strong, steady vibration through the frame of the couch.

She managed to observe all of that until she felt the head of the phallus pushing at her cunt. It was gentle, just probing, but she could feel the strength behind it. Victoria was beginning to feel a panic rising in her throat but then Mercer was kneeling beside her, his gloved fingers spreading her open to allow the phallus to enter.

“It’s not perfect yet,” he murmured. “I’m still needed for some things.”

“Well, thank God for that,” she said, breathing hard. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder, and having him there, solid and human, helped as the phallus pushed into her body in short, smooth movements.

Maunderings and Misalignments

Hoo boy, I missed a week back there. Darn.

Winter’s closing in fast, and the gray light is getting harder to beat. I’ve been doing very little but planning to write lately, and whether that means I am actually outlining usefully or just fooling myself remains to be seen.

On the other hand, I’m also in a place where I am just about ready to start a few longer projects, and hopefully, I have done enough planning to ensure that they do not crash and burn halfway through or to forget to include certain main characters in the middle.*

I need to remember that points like this do in fact just happen, especially when I’m tired and stressed, so it does not mean “Oh god, I’m never going to write again” which is what used to happen. Instead, I’ve taken a good break, fed myself and not on junk food, and I’m keeping busy.

Have some of the random links on my bookmarks as I clear them out!

Useful
Erotica Readers and Writers Associations- Call for Submissions & Publishers Guidelines
Erotic Authors (livejournal)
Eharlequin Spice

Less Useful
Skin and Skeleton Preparation
19th Century China

Huh?
How to Make Entrails
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Coming Soon:
Fiction on Thursday
The Return of Cape Bondage
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* “I didn’t forget what happened to him, I just didn’t care” is invariably the wrong response.

And Now We Play the Waiting Game…

Despite being slightly dry on the writing front right now, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t earlier this year. What that means is that I have quite a few stories out, and I’m waiting to hear back on them.

This is one of the most irritating parts about being a writer, where all of your work is currently out and there’s nothing you can do about it. I have something like five short stories waiting for a response, and the answer to the stress is simply go write some more.

As far as I can tell, that’s always the answer, so have a small piece of fiction before I need to pop off and finally get some good sleep.

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First was the shock of pain and then the taste of blood in his mouth. Peri’s cheek stung and he forced himself not to cringe, not to show in any way that he was afraid.

Satviy made a hissing noise through his long teeth. It might have been disappointment, but to Peri, there was an unpleasant savor of anticipation there. Thin hands spidered up Peri’s bare side, unexpectedly ticklish before stroking along his jaw. The pleasure was as unlooked-for and as unwelcome as the pain.

“Soon,” Satviy said, nipping his strong white teeth against the skin of Peri’s unmarked cheek. “Oh, soon, beloved.”

You were beloved, and then you were dead, Peri thought with a surge of fear. He cringed when Satviy’s hand brushed between his legs, stifling a helpless cry that was far too close to a whimper.

Yes, some longing part of him thought, but first you were beloved.
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Coming Soon
Writing Sweetness, Writing Tragedy
Projects List
Thought Process While Writing a Sex Scene

And We’re Back!

Okay, apparently, I could keep up NaNoWriMo in the face of moving and in the face of being a bridesmaid, but the ER visit was just pushing it over the top. I’m fine now, so don’t worry, but dude. So much for word count.

I’m currently at a bit of a lull at the moment, just due to personal exhaustion and a real desire not to end up in the ER again, so my writing has been down, but not non-existent. There’s been some fanfic, and some noodling around with significantly longer stuff, but I want to get back to writing very badly.

I’m feeling a little brain-fried right now, so have a list of 5 things that I didn’t do over the past few weeks.

Die.
Yay!

Write 1,666 Words a Day
Boo!

Play Pranks on the ER Nurse
For some reason, I really wanted to to pretend to be passed out when the ER nurse came back in. I was widely informed that that was Not On.

Get a Bed
I’m living the bohemian writer lifestyle in a cheap apartment and sleeping on a pallet of blankets on the floor. It sucks, and I’d like to upgrade to bohemian writer living as pampered mistress of a rich man or woman now.*

Go Fetal.
Not once. Honestly, I’m as surprised as you are.

Hmm, while we’re stream of conscience writing here, I suddenly want to write a novella called “Two Dead Girls.” I… guess it would be two vampires who are hunting something big in Milwaukee. With lots of sex, I’d imagine.

Ahem.
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Coming Soon:
Kannan Feng Updates Her Blog Some More (Promise!)
Keeping Track of Projects and Why I Should
Upcoming Submissions -or- Please, Please Like Me!
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*Happily, I am getting a bed tonight. We think.

Nocturne in the Key of AAAAAAAARGH

This is going to be fast because somehow, I decided that moving, starting NaNoWriMo, and being a bridesmaid are OF COURSE the things that all need to go on the same week. Five things, and go!

1. I started NaNoWriMo, which seems to involve me writing a m/f paranormal romance. Didn’t see that one coming. Maybe this will tell us for once and all whether I can write people in love.

2. Stuff. Everywhere. It’s driving me slightly batfuck, but I figure that this is good for me. By Thursday, I’ll have less stuff and be in a new apartment where I can have all my books out again. I missed my books.

3. Sorting through my books, I have way less porn than I thought I did. The response, of course, is that I need more pornography.

4. In the middle of all of this, I want to write short stories like mad. My hands already hurt from the extra typing and the hauling of worldly possessions. I am actually putting the brakes on this impulse before my body decides it needs to put the breaks on for me.

5. When your job needs you to have an icon of yourself in your profile, and you have no camera, the next best thing is to find old BDSM pictures and do some judicious cropping. Just FYI.
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Coming Soon:
A Real Entry, One Hopes
TERROR!
Likely, Writing After That.

Five Things Make A Quick Post So I Can Go Eat Hungarian Food

1.  I woke up this morning with “check copyright date of The Little Mermaid” written on my hand. As the Long-Suffering Girlfriend does not actually graffiti me in my sleep, I could only assume I had written it at some point the night previous. It was another half-hour before I figured out what was going on, and remembered that it was a story about the little mermaid’s rather murderous brother.

2.  On a related note, for any Windows users out there, Scrivener, the novel-writing software that was previously Mac only rolled out a free Windows beta, found here. Anyone who participates in Nanowrimo this year and validates with 50,000 words gets a 50% off coupon for the full version when it rolls out next year. Hmm. Is saving 20 dollars off of a 40 dollar purchase actually worth all the teeth grinding and pain that occur when I decide to do the writer equivalent of extreme sports?

3.  I’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo! The smart thing to do would be to work on that novel that I’m working on right now. But no, I’m going to do something entirely different. Some projects include “Pain Like Knives,” the story of the little mermaid’s wicked brother, Maksim’s story, “Handsome Dead Gentleman,” which is a story about a vampire and a revenant, or maybe that one where everyone’s unhappy and everyone dies. So Madeline, whatcha gonna write about? ^_~

4.  Since I’m going to be doing NaNoWriMo, November is going to be a necessarily short-story free zone. This makes me a little sad, but I’ve just finished a ton of short stories that I need to submit today.

5.  That said, I hate short story submission. It gets easier, but you know, that’s what they say about killing people.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Don’t make any deals with the devil that I wouldn’t.
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Coming Soon:
I Outline Like a Crazy Person, ‘Cause Hell If I’m Going Into NaNoWriMo Without
Hungarian Food!
A Trip to the Vietnamese Grocery Store

Visual Media and the Writer

Still considdering NaNoWriMo, but with bridesmaiding duties, and a move coming up, the thought of doing it made my brain simultaneously puke and try to eat itself.*

Lots of things make me want to write, as I think I have mentioned before. Mostly, writing is caused by reading, but not always, so I thought I’d post a few of the pieces of visual media that have made me think, oh, I want to do something like that!

Interestingly enough, I think that all of the links below are actually safe for work.

Hipsters:  He Doesn’t Need an American Wife
This is from the Russian movie Stilyagi, or Hipsters, when the male character in the song decides to give up his bohemian lifestyle and go to study in the United States. The song translates to “He Doesn’t Need an American Wife,” and some of the most eye-catching moments for me include the hairdresser pulling his head out of the sink to make him look in the mirror and the perfectly red mouths of the singers at the beginning.

The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku
Vocaloid is a singing synthesizer and the different voices are represented by characters. The clip above features one of these characters in hologram form giving a live concert. First, we live in a Gibson novel, and second, it’s fascinating to me to see the investment and emotion given to something that can’t return it or even respond to it. There’s an imbalance there, though I don’t know on which side, and the implications of what happens if you take this further, exaggerate it more, make me really curious.

Where the Wild Roses Grow
This PJ Harvey and Nick Cave doing Henry Lee. The story’s simple, featuring a man who wants to leave a woman and woman who will absolutely not let him do so. The song is lovely, but what stands out to me is the performance by PJ Harvey, which pictures a woman who is creepy, doesn’t care that she’s creepy and completely obsessed. The touching between Nick Cave and PJ Harvey is lingering, and given the fact that Cave’s character is dead about halfway through the song, more than a little skin-crawling. I Like It.**

Gintama AMV
This video is from the anime Gintama, which you hear me and Miss Rat mention from time to time, and I’m going to be totally honest with you when I say that its a trap. It’s a beautifully put together anime music video using clips from the series, and it seems to be telling you about a story of war, loyalty, friends who become enemies, and the need to change in order to survive. Gintama is all about those things, but remember that there is also a faux-tentacle rape scene involving a snot monster. This video made me want to write a story about that other anime they’re talking about, the one where the hero doesn’t have a heroic speech about strawberry milk bringing on incontinence.***
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Coming Soon
Ornamental Eroticism
Phone Sex and Fetishes I Did Not See Coming
Halloween!
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*And word-pictures like that are why I’m not a romance writer.
**Interestingly enough, I don’t feel the same way about the Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave duet on Where the Wild Roses Grow. I don’t know if its because its a man killing a woman or because I don’t recall those characters touching or seeming as obsessed with each other or what. I worry it’s because depictions of the violence of women against men is so common that it doesn’t trigger as strong a reaction in me.
***I have watched almost 200 episodes of this thing and I dragged the Long-Suffering Girlfriend and Miss Rat in with me. I don’t know, either.

Plot-Plot-Plot

When I write, I don’t usually get things as plot. I get an image, a line of dialog or something similar, and then I have to find a way to incorporate it into something that might be called a story. A lot of times, in the middle of that, the thing that got the whole ball rolling gets lost, because it usually wasn’t very good in the first place, but it doesn’t matter all that much because at least I’m writing.

Plots are hard for me. In many cases, erotica is easy in that I usually just have to get two characters in one place with less clothes than they had on in the beginning.* Plots don’t come naturally for me, but I’ve learned a few tricks for getting them on the road.

One of my favorites is to figure out what that character wants and to take it away from them. That usually gets people moving, and if they don’t start moving, you probably didn’t want to write a story about them in the first place.

Another trick is to write out the blurb on the back of the book. It sounds silly and self-aggrandizing, but it really helps focus things.

I’ve actually finished a few things recently, so I’ve come up with a few longer projects. Check out the two blurbs below, both to see how my brain works, and to tell me which of these you might like to see.

Pretender
Jinhai thinks he’s born to live in and die in the pleasure quarters until he falls in with a rebel group that believes he’s the bastard son of the rightful king. Jinhai’s role as the pretender to the throne is made increasingly dangerous when he realizes that his lover from his previous life is none other than Tsai Liang, the emperor’s First General.

Untitled
Maksim makes a profession out of being the villain. He’s led the armies of a dozen of despotic regimes across the continent, and he prides himself on getting out right before the farmboy shows up with the magic sword. The kingdom of Firth should have been no different, but that was before the pretty young high priest starts stirring up feelings that Maksim long thought were dead, and before the farmboy shows up wearing a face that looks a lot like Maksim’s own.

Pretender is me crossing a wuxia*** film with a yaoi manga. It’s sad, angsty, and I’m pretty sure there’s a sad boy in the moonlight scene.

The Untitled piece is meant to be a funny, genre-savvy story about the stereotypical villain from a high fantasy novel. That is, I want it to be funny, but I’m also afraid I’ll take things too dark, and then there will be that awkward silence where no one is laughing but me.

If you have an opinion on which one that you would rather read, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m not sure if one of these stories will be my next long project, but signs point to yes!
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Coming Soon:
Verity and Iskander Go to the Supermarket
An Apple, Maybe
More Writing! More, I Say!
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*This came around and bit me in the ass with Lord of Misrule. I wrote the short story and then was asked to write a novella. Thank Squid that there was enough there to hang a novella off of. You can’t do that with some of my short story characters. **
**If they had asked me for something longer with Dust and Laika from Virgin, for example, I likely would have just written them a cyberpunk caper.
***Chinese martial arts movies. Some examples include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.