There is too much–let me sum up!

I’ve published two more erotic shorts since my last post.

Here’s the blurb for Her Favorite Pastime:  The insatiable Emily, last seen in Audience Participation, returns in an all-new tale of sexual adventure. Nothing thrills her like sex in public–with her husband, with old lovers, or with new. Tonight she takes on three new lovers one by one, introducing them to the kinky thrills of exhibitionism, voyeurism, and hotel room sex parties. Showing these newbies the ropes will be her pleasure.

 

And then there’s Taking Advantage, just published today:

The blurb for Taking Advantage: It’s no surprise to readers of her adventures (Audience Participation, Her Favorite Pastime) that Emily loves sex. Particularly anonymous public sex–in adult theatres, hotel parties, sex clubs, anywhere she can get it. But she’s always careful to keep her hobby a secret from her less adventurous friends and co-workers, who wouldn’t understand. That means maintaining a professional relationship with her very attractive but unapproachable boss.

Until the night she stumbles across her boss in the middle of a crowded sex club. It puts a whole new spin on their relationship, and provides an opportunity she doesn’t intend to miss….

So…it appears that I’m writing a series about the insatiable Emily. That wasn’t my intent when I started, but the first story–Audience Participation–has been consistently the best-selling of my erotic shorts. So I decided to try to capture that lightning in a bottle again. So I wrote Her Favorite Pastime, and now Taking Advantage. All stories about Emily’s swinging adventures, and her penchant for plentiful, anonymous and public sex.

But writing these stories just to try to sell them wouldn’t work. I also happen to enjoy writing them. They turn me on. They remind me of the glorious fun–and physical pleasure–I’ve experienced in my real life swinging adventures. They say to write what you know, and one thing I know is swinging. It’s my favorite social hobby (my favorite non-social hobby is writing).

It’s not a hobby for everyone, but I highly recommend it. It’s “more fun than humans should be allowed to have,” as David Letterman is wont to say. (Or was, years ago, when I still watched him.) Some of what Emily has experienced I’ve experienced firsthand. Some of it I’ve witnessed, but not experienced. And some of it is just fantasy. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to try to figure out which is which, if you care.

There will be more stories about Emily’s adventures. And eventually a collection. Possibly more than one, if I write enough stories about her. Or about the adventures of her husband, Brian, or their playmates. It’s a topic about which I have a lot to say, and one I truly enjoy researching.

A New Book–and a New Post!

Anna’s life is perfect. The “friends with benefits” relationships with her two lovers satisfy her completely. Booty calls several times a week, a few hours of exquisite pleasure, then home. What could be better? Until both her lovers decide to rock the boat. Both men want more than casual sex.

They want a real relationship. That puts Anna in an awkward position when they learn about one another–and her relationship with each of them. Her lovers confront her with a stark choice: choose one of them or lose both. Anna refuses to accept their ultimatum. She wants more. She needs more–and she intends to have it.

Available for $0.99 from Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and soon from other platforms.

I’m Shocked to Discover Virtual Sex Going On Here!

Shocked, I tell you!

Okay, maybe not really. I mean, it’s the internet.

As I’ve mentioned someplace, maybe even here, for some years my PC ran linux. I spent that time enjoying learning a new operating system, and enjoying a lengthy vacation from Windows. Linux has many features to admire, but access to a wide variety of commercial games is not one of them. I could live with that, though I missed some of my old games. What I couldn’t live with were several limitations on my ability to write. The OpenOffice support for the rich text format is…lacking, in my experience. As was the ability to read the notes my editors put into manuscripts during the back-and-forth of edits.

So, when I bought a new PC in January, I got it with Windows 7 installed. And so far it’s been remarkably trouble-free. And I can play some of my old games. I also stumbled across a mention of Second Life, a virtual world you can explore, and decided to try it. I’d tried it once before, but it was an utter bust. (Though to be honest, that had more to do with my old computer’s relatively anemic processing power than the OS.) But my new PC has power to spare, so I tried it.

I wasn’t sure how much fun I would have with Second Life when I started exploring it. You choose a basic avatar (a visual model you use as your point of view character, which you can modify endlessly if you choose), and use it to explore the world. I had this mental image of it as one big virtual world you can just wander around in. And it is, to a degree. But a lot of the areas aren’t truly adjacent. You have to “teleport” from one to another. Which involves knowing a place exists in order to jump there. Which means either searching, or being told about it by another SL (Second Life) user.

You can interact with other users, chatting (in public chat or in private IM mode). You can modify your avatar’s appearance, obtain or modify clothing, hair, and a vast array of accessories. You can build vehicles or buildings (if you know how–I haven’t a clue yet.) You can script gestures, create sound bites, and on and on.

And, of course, you can have sex. Just like the rest of the internet, there’s a huge portion of SL devoted to porn. Generic avatars come with generic white “underwear” covering their naughty bits. But, of course, you can also obtain nude “skins” that leave nothing to the imagination. Well, except genitals. If you want actual genitals, you need to find and acquire those too. And how!

There is an enormous assortment of both male and female naughty bits available, some for free, some for purchase. Most, because the makers assume (correctly) that if you’re shopping for naughty bits you intend to make use of them, come with controls (HUDs). If you’re of the male persuasion, you can control the status of your manly organ, from flaccid to full on erection. You can even enjoy a happy ending at the push of a button. A very…obvious and visual happy ending.

Don’t think the women are getting left out. Non-functional but visible female naughty bits are available, of course. Or you can get a fully-functioning, HUD-controlled vagina every bit as remarkable as the male version, complete with happy ending simulations (scripted behaviors for your avatar, some with sound effects).

See, now that you’ve got your naughty bits, you need only find a willing partner (or partners), of either sex and get your freak on. There are “pose balls” (small, bright polygons littering the landscape) that, if you click on them, will take control of your avatar(s) and animate them, according to the scripts written into them. Or you can enjoy yourselves in an actual bed (another scripted device). More advanced versions provide you with yet another HUD, allowing you select the appropriate type and number of participants (MF, FF, MM, FMM, MFF, etc) and what sort of activity you wish to enjoy (kissing, foreplay, sex), and often exactly how (what positions, whether to include BDSM, and so forth).

It’s been fascinating to see. A bit weird, but fascinating.

In other news, I have a new release out. My Name is Legion,  a short novelette in the superheroic erotic romance field. It’s the first of what I hope will be a number of books about the lives and loves of superheroes and superheroines in the Guardians superteam. It’s available from Gelastic Press on Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Allromanceebooks, and other sites.

A new post! And a new book!

Cover art for "My Name is Legion"

Could it be? Why yes, it could! It is!

I’m posting again for the first time in too long. I really should be better about this. I’m also self-publishing a new short novel. More of a novelette or novella, really. The first of several I hope to do about various members of the superhero team, the Guardians, and the lives and loves thereof.

I like the cover art, which I did myself. I’m getting pretty handy with GIMP if I do say so myself.

So, what’s it about? Glad you asked!

Camille loves Daniel, and he loves her. But she has a secret: she’s also the shapeshifting superheroine known as Legion, a member of the Guardians. It’s important work, and she does it well, but it’s ruining her love life.

It’s not the sort of secret a girl shares with just anyone. She has to be sure of the relationship before she lets on. Daniel’s been patient, but she’s postponed or missed too many dates and she long since ran out of good excuses. His patience is wearing thin. Just when she’s found the man she wants, he’s ready to let her go….

The New World of Publishing

Wow. It’s been over a month since I last posted. I’m going to have to do better on that score. So, to quote Inigo Montoya, “I will es-plain–no, wait, there is too much. Lat me sum up….”

I’ve jumped into the exciting new world of self-publishing. I created a publishing house (i.e., picked a name I liked, checked that the domain was available, bought it, and created a Publisher Blog), and I’ve now self-published five short erotic stories, and one collection of said stories. All of them are available on Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, as well as Sony, Kobo, and other sites via the Smashwords premium catalog, which distributes books to a number of additional sites. My publishing venture is Gelastic Press, “gelastic” meaning “laughing”. After all, you laugh when you’re having a good time, don’t you? There’s not a lot there at the moment, but there are links to all my self-publishing work so far. Check it out.

The publishing world is in an uproar. Things are topsy-turvy, and nobody knows how it will ultimately shake out. On the one hand, J. A. Konrath, Amanda Hocking and others have made scandalous amounts of money by self-publishing their novels. Self-publishing is clearly the wave of the future!

On the other hand, self-publishing wunderkind Amanda Hocking just signed a deal for a half million dollar advance to publish through a traditional New York publishing house. She’s said it’s because she’s gotten so busy with the details of her self-publishing efforts that she has no time to write. Basically, she wants to have someone else take care of that stuff. I think it’s also that she started out wanting to be traditionally published, and self-published only as a last resort and now has earned herself an offer.

On the gripping hand* traditionally-published novelist Barry Eisler just turned down a half-million dollar advance in favor of self-publication. It’s caused quite the uproar, as you can imagine. Some people hail him for it, others revile him for it. He’s been quite upfront about the fact that he believes he can earn more in both the short and long term by self-publishing, getting 70% of the purchase price of each book rather than the much smaller royalty he’d earn from traditional sales–and that only after he’s earned out his advance.

So which way should a would-be writer jump? I can’t tell you. That’s for every writer to decide for herself. As for me, I’m pursuing both avenues. I’ve got two novels circulating in New York, I’m continuing to submit stories to epublishers, and I’m self-publishing. I’ll let the results guide me.

*There’s a Mote in God’s Eye reference for you SF readers…

Technophilia

No, it’s not some weird sexual thing. A technophile is someone who likes technology. That would be me. I can’t say whether being a lifelong science fiction fan led to my technophilia, or vice versa.

Nonetheless, I’m not a cutting edge sort of gal. My most recent techno-toy acquisition is a Samsung Intercept smart phone. I’ve had it for three days, and I’m still figuring out all the possibilities. Before that I made do for many years with a cheap, simple cell phone. I only got my new phone after I saw how cool it was when my spouse got one–the same model.

It’s like a computer in my pocket–because it is! I can not only make and receive calls, and texts, there are zillions of apps that allow me to do all kinds of things anywhere I happen to be. I like it a lot, even though I occasionally get frustrated when I can’t make something work like it’s supposed to.

This is the same pattern I followed after watching my spouse enjoy using a Nook e-reader. Now I have one too, and I like it a lot. I can carry an entire library around in one hand, or in a pocket or bag.

I’m living in The Future ™. It’s not the future they promised me when I was a child of 10, trying to imagine what my life would be like in the then-unimaginably distant year 2000. But it’s definitely a future, and a high tech future at that. The absence of flying cars and jetpacks and lunar colonies still saddens me, but the existence of the internet, of ubiquitous computing, and all the other fascinating technologies we do mostly make up for those things.

I love flying!

It’s the next best thing to sex.

And I don’t mean flying on an airplane. I mean flying like Superman.

I’ve had flying dreams for as long as I can remember. I always enjoyed them very much. Whenever those “if you could have one wish/superpower, what would it be?” questions comes along my answer is: flying!

Many years ago I read a book that purported to explain how you could learn to achieve lucid dreaming–that state in which you realize you are dreaming. Sounded like fun to me. So I tried it. The technique is pretty simple. You make a habit of trying to do something impossible every so often. Try to set the wastebasket on fire with the power of your mind. Try to levitate. Things like that. The idea is that if you make it a habit, you’ll wind up doing it in your dreams–and when it works, you’ll realize that you’re dreaming. The realization may wake you at first, but eventually you’ll manage to walk that narrow path.

It works. I eventually learned to have lucid dreams. Not regularly, but fairly often. Far more often, though, I don’t quite realize I’m dreaming–but I realize that I can control my environment. It’s like having magical powers. I can change things that bother (annoy or frighten) me. I sometimes replay a scene and make it work out differently.

But early this morning, I reached that wide-awake-but-dreaming state. At first it was the sort of semi-lucid dream where I could only alter the environment. I was someone else, specifically Iron Maiden (the heroine of several of my stories) and having some kind of adventure that involve flying and fighting bad guys–as my dreams so often do….

But at some point I crossed over into lucidity and realized I was dreaming. So I went flying. Soaring over whatever sorts of landscapes I liked. It’s a lot like skydiving, really, except that you can “fall” in any direction you want, including straight up, or parallel to the earth. High above the water or the city or the forest, or close enough to earth to wow the crowds below.

It’s more fun than humans should be allowed.