As a card-carrying Borders aficionado (credit card, that is), I have the pleasure of letting those $5.00 Borders bucks coupons accumulate every month. Recently, I grabbed a pile of them, went to my local store, and bought Susie Bright’s new anthology, X: The Erotic Treasury. It was pricey at $35.00 dollars, but it’s not your average erotic anthology. It’s something more. It’s high-end.

High-end erotica. Sounds like “high-priced callgil.” In a way, it is.

It’s beautifully packaged book. First, it’s hardcover, which is pretty well unheard of for erotic fiction. Its boards have an onlay, a repeating floral pattern of black against a minutely speckled scarlet, and its endsheets carry the same pattern, white on black. Most exquisitely, it’s slipcased. Yes, slipcased. In 1/8th-inch boards that not only repeat the same floral pattern (but in scarlet on black), but with a large die-cut into its side.

The only thing missing in this baby is a colophon.

Susie’s book left me with a damn good case of book lust, and I’d like to see more high-end work like it. But that’s a tall wish — the publishing industry has been hit badly by the economic slide. Still, makes me think about my early years of book collecting when, as a recent college graduate, I was more likely to spend my money on a Donald Grant or a later-edition Arkham House title than a skirt or blouse for work.

I think about how fans of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction have a long history of small presses producing beautiful, limited edition books* and how they’ve supported them with their hard-earned dollars. If only erotica’s fan were like that, I’ve often wished. Of course, I know that’s unfair to those of you who love erotic fiction. We’ve never had an infrastructure like those genres — no conventions, no fanzines, not even a lasting history of support from the Big Houses of Publishing. It’s impossible to have a high end without infrastructure support.

But I’d love to see erotic fiction get its day in the sun, a day bright enough to support everything from the high end to common mass market paperback. (And e-book!) I’d love to have a shelf of attractive, finely-produced books of erotic fiction in my library.

I hope Susie’s book is just the start of it.

X: The Erotic Treasury is not a limited edition work.

As the snow flies, I’m celebrating the recent release of my new Ravenous Romance novel, Blind Seduction, and my gay romance tale, 10 Lords A Leaping. It’s a wonderful way to see out the year, especially as the snow flies here in New England.

It’s deeply rewarding to see ideas imagined and put to prose see publication, and I’m happy to be in the new media mix that’s the e-book world. (This, despite a home filled with printed books and the collector’s habits that go with it.)

For quite some time, I felt like my novels would never see the light of day. I couldn’t find a print publisher to save my life that was interested in any romantic erotic that stepped beyond light bondage and role-playing and into authentic BDSM storytelling. (This, despite the 20-plus year popularity of Anne Rice’s Beauty books.) But Carnal Desire Publishing and, later, Ravenous Romance, changed all that for me, for which I’m deeply grateful.

I’m also grateful to Lori Perkins at RR’s blog where she acknowledged me as a “prominent short story and e-book author who really knows the BDSM territory. In this novel, she’s written an amazingly romantic tale of a couple’s visit to an S&M retreat as an anniversary present.”

To top it all off, Ravenous Romance has bought my four-book fantasy series that follows a devotee to a goddess of sexual pleasure as she journeys from initiate to captive to outcast, only to return to avenge her goddess against a usurper. Lori calls it a cross between “Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series and Anne Rice’s Beauty books.” I’d add “with a dash of George R. R. Martin” for those of you who like multiple characters rotating through each chapter. Regardless, it’ll be exciting to see my Kith series into publication.

Before this entry threatens to turn this blog into a gratitude journal, let me wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And you can guess what my one resolution will be — BLOG MORE!

I didn’t plan a month-long absence but it evolved into a necessity, thanks to much writing and many family obligations. Sometimes, there’s only so much of me to go around!

But I’m happy to report that Ravenous Romance launched today, bringing its cache of provocative erotic romance to avid readers everywhere. You’ll find a handful of initial novels and short stories there in ebook and audio formats — with more to coming daily mid-month.

My first novel with Ravenous Romance, Blind Seduction, will drop December 20th. And I couldn’t be happier. The editors I’ve worked with appreciate solid, exciting story-telling, dedicate the resources to copy editing necessary to make a strong book exceptional, and are remarkably, enthusiastically open to most any erotic variation you can think of.

I’ve also contributed to what will be a Twelve Days of Christmas selection of short stories, scheduled to debut during the holiday season. Ambitious me, but I ran with Ten Lords A’Leaping, making it a hot, M/M tale of guys getting it on. Yum.

And I’ve almost completed my second novel for RR as well, a fantasy tale called Desire’s Pursuit that I hope will become a multi-novel series. More on that as it develops.

FYI, fellas: Yes, Ravenous Romance is primarily geared for women and, yes, you will find romantic elements in its offerings, but I can guarantee you that if you like the erotic word, you’ll enjoy this publisher’s titles. Personally, I haven’t had to scale back any of my erotic writing with Ravenous Romance; I’ve only had to expand the connectedness of my principal characters, an element that existed in most of my previous erotica, just to a lesser degree.

Hope you’ll check out the site and buy a couple of ebooks. Hey, it keeps us lusty writers working!

Downstairs, in my library, sits a pile of magazines dating from the 1930s to the 1970s. I bought them in bulk sales, most often via ebay, fascinated by their existence. I’d discover they were produced by the father of science fiction, pulp publisher Hugo Gernsback, adding to my fascination. At one point, my curiosity spilled over into an article that discussed not only its aim and content, but how it reached people of a certain generation.

I’m talking about Sexology, the Illustrated Magazine of Sex Science and now Craig Yoe has selected and compiled a boatload of articles from its many issues, delightfully packaged in a retro-hardcover edition that I can’t help but feel would be the perfect gift to the horndog on your holiday list. Yoe introduces the collection with a “history of” recap that veers from near-camp to seriously informative, then launches you right into the most titillating offerings the magazine put forth in its forty-year existence. Topics like Homosexual Chickens, Men in Lingerie,and Sex Education on the Beach will keep you entertained and amazed. (My personal favorites? Chastising Thrills and Two Psychiatrists Analyze Obscene, Pornographic Letters.)

I won’t deny that Sexology had more than a bit of an “anatomical curiosity museum” element to its contents — a topic like Polymastia… multiple breasts isn’t all that different than pickled body parts — but the magazine also served a useful purpose. Immigrating to the U.S. in 1907, Gernsback was surprised to find a lack of sexual intelligence among Americans and began publishing the magazine during the sexual dark ages of the early 20th-century. It took courage to publish any tracts on sexuality, thanks to the suppressive affects of the Comstock Act and, indeed, Sexology would more than once come under the scrutiny of obscenity mavens, but it never faced actual conviction, perhaps because it contained enough medical language and M.D. appellations in its bylines to protect it from being labeled prurient.

Gernsback’s commitment to sexual intelligence would last a lifetime. If I understand this ERBzine “reprint” of a 1963 Life magazine article that profiled Gernsback, he was still fighting the enlightenment battle.

“Gernsback is fully prepared, even anxious, to answer the slavering critic who accuses him of prurience. Sex, he feels, is a “cultural subject” and as such should not be “relegated to back rooms” but discussed openly–even its more peripheral phases. He finds the “non-scientific attitude” about it “appalling, abysmal stupidity….Let me tell you something very few people realize,” he says. “Even physicians are not taught anything about sex in college! A horrifying situation!”

According to Life, Gernsback said he felt that “sex offer[ed] a last, unexplored, scientific frontier.”

Gernsback was right. But I wonder if he knew how prescient that statement was. Did he know that the homesteading race of sex was about to commence? That the pill catapulted us into the sexual revolution, overthrowing the old order of moral suppression?

Ironically, Gernsback died in 1967 during the summer of love. He did not live to see the rise of sexual liberation in all its variety but he escaped having to see his creation outlive its usefulness.

But I bet he would’ve appreciated the fact that his little magazine had a role in its own obsolescence.

And I love the one designed for my first novel with them, Blind Seduction.

The single-most reason I didn’t enter the e-book realm sooner was a lack of attractive covers. I simply didn’t like what I saw publishers putting out and found them so lacking that I didn’t want my own work associated with them. Yes, I’d been spoiled by the beautiful covers that graced the anthologies in which my short stories appeared, but I also found many e-book covers so off-putting that I seldom bought an e-book.

When I finally stuck my toe in the waters of e-book publishing, I was lucky that Carnal Desires Publishing allowed me a lot of leeway in cover art. (I’m forever thankful they were so wonderfully collaborative in the process.) Giving up that collaboration when Ravenous Romance came along was difficult for me.

Their first batch of covers began to allay my fears. Their design was crisp and energetic. I especially loved those like Playgirl and Cybill In Between. Granted, I’m given to fetish/BDSM imagery, but it remained important because it revealed Ravenous Romance’s approach to subject matter.

When I saw Blind Seduction’s cover, I was flattered and flabbergasted. The designer symbolically caught key elements of the novel’s pinnacle scene (and, no, I’m not going to tell you what they are). The title treatment echoes the prominent blindfold — deliciously so! — and I’m impressed to find a statute representing the book’s key protagonist in what I interpret to be symbolic of the subtle objectification she experiences throughout the tale.

So, wow. Impressive. I’m one happy author in waiting.

this year’s National Coming Out Day and Connecticut’s breakout news, I thought I’d relay an overheard phone conversation between my son and one of his best buds who’s bisexual and boyfriend-ed. His side of the conversation:

“I just wanted you to know that Connecticut just legalized same-sex marriage.”
-pause-
“Yeah, really.”
-pause-
“So you think you and Joe will be up for a three-way later tonight?”

Of course, it’s not what you’d like to think. This trio often conference-call — usuallly while playing video games.

I’m glad that Connecticut’s “separate-but-equal” civil unions were a short-lived avenue for my fellow citizens and I’m delighted we now have true legal equality. I’m even more proud of my kids who, now as young adults, eagerly celebrated the news.

I’m slogging my way through my final edit on the Next Novel with the most intense effort coming later today after I receive corrections from my proof/first reader. Thus, in-depth blogging won’t resume until next week.

You can, however, find entertainment at the Ravenous Romance website where a new story “Hot Fling” is yours for the taking. I’ve downloaded it but because I want to read it on my Sony Reader, I need to set aside some time and convert it from PDF to .rtf. Maybe later today. (Even I need a break from my own delightful havoc.)

Because I’m either writing or editing all the day long, I’ve spent my evening unwinding with the new television season. I’m enjoying House M.D and trying out Fringe. Have Heroes taped and will watch it tonight, although all the men in my life claim it’s gotten too weird for them and don’t want to watch it. Bleh to them.

But what I’m really, really enjoying is the new season of Torchwood via Netflix. Especially since Jack Harkness’ sexuality is on the snoggin’ upswing. I just hope it doesn’t come too obligatory; I’d hate to see his bisexual lust reduced to one man-on-man snog per episode. That said, the reunion kiss between Jack and a fellow time agent was HOT. Do yourself a favor and watch this video starting at roughly the 45-second mark.

Now, you see, if Marvel superheroes had done this in the comics when I was a kid (and, later, as a much younger woman than I am now), they would’ve made a lot more sense to me. I always rolled my eyes when two superheroes met up for the first time. They also went off on a testosterone-sparked fist-fighting frenzy (oh true believer), bashing the brawn out of each other before discovery they were on the same side.

Had they fought and then snogged? Now that would’ve made some kind of sense to me — if for no other reason than its erotic heat.

And with snoggin’ on my brain, it’s back to sloggin’.

I’m thinking of that party animal from the Tidy Cat commercial. You know, the cat with the lampshade on his head?

If I’m lucky, you’ve been asking that question about me, wondering if I’ve been partying like a dumb Persian cat. Well, sort of. I just haven’t gotten to the lampshade extreme yet. I’m too busy working for that.

In July, literary agent Lori Perkins emailed me about a new e-publishing venture, Ravenous Romance, and asked whether I had any unpublished novels and short stories. Boy, did I. So we corresponded.

The outcome? I’m now working with her agency, which will guide my works into publication with Ravenous Romance.

Lori and I had touched base awhile back, but nothing came of it at the time. At the time, a fellow author told me, “You probably didn’t have anything she could use.” I guess she was right because Lori didn’t forget me. I’m deeply thankful for that. But I’m also happy that Ravenous Romance appears to be a good fit for me. According to a press release, “Ravenous Romance™ will be a destination site for women, with erotica that celebrates female sexuality, and strong Web 2.0 community-building features.”

Which gets a big pumping-fist Yes! from me.

Ravenous Romance has set an ambitious goal of publishing a short story and a novel every day, starting in December. It seeks “erotic romance stories with strong plots and character development, but with steamy sex scenes and explicit descriptions of sexual encounters. The stories must feature strong, passionate characters and plots that express a broad range of fantasies.”

Which earns more happy dancing from me. (Probably look there like Snoopy from Peanuts, not the Dumb Lampshade Cat.)

Why? Because it feels like the sex-positive school of erotica — the platform that formed my writing perspective — has finally merged with erotic romance in a way that’s meaningful to me.

Feels good to me.

But the reason I’m not lampshade crazy with euphoria? Because I have to part ways with Carnal Desires Publishing to some degree and it’s bittersweet for me. We’ve shared a strong collaborative spirit, one that I value and appreciate. I still intend to keep them on my website as a source of erotic fiction and I’ll still point you to their titles. They’re doing good things at CDP, much of it in the same sex-positive vein I’ve needed as a writer.

I’m busy at work, finishing up my first title for Ravenous Romance, an effort that’ll keep me busy through much of this month, but it’s time to get back to blogging as well. I’ve stories to tell, thoughts to contemplate, and points to make. Time to blog.

I asked myself that question while perusing Rachel Kramer Bussel’s new anthology, Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica. Why is it such an inexhaustible subject? Part of the answer has to be Rachel’s own passion for the subject. She’s such an enthusiast that she easily inspires writers to look for new angles on an age-old lust. It doesn’t matter that Spanked happens to be her third anthology dedicated exclusively to this fine erotic art; the topic’s as fresh now as when her Pretty Things Press title, Naughty Spanking, Stories from A to Z, saw release.

What is it about spanking? The question kept floating back and forth in my thoughts over the last day or so. Memories of my own spanking experiences kept emerging as part my pondering. I remembered asking a dominant friend of mine who to get started in spanking. His recommendation? Start with a leather paddle. “It’s easy to aim,” he told me, “and you can control how hard to hit with it.”

I remembered my surprise the first time I employed my own hand to a naked male bottom — hell, it hurt! I discovered a man’s ass is far more muscular than it appears and that my small hands and slender wrists can’t match a man’s fantasy for a hard hand spanking. Sorry, just ain’t gonna happen.

And, yeah, it does hurt me more than it hurts you.

Through the years, many of my spanking discoveries defied my expectations. I learned that I personally can’t take the pounding hand spankings I’ve seen others take. Oh, I warm up just fine to those preliminary slaps, the ones meant to warm the skin and prep the flesh. But up the ante into full-fledge mode and you’ll find me at my physical limit in no time. It’s fine for an over-the-knee quickie (and I do enjoy pressing my belly against my superior’s erection during the agony), but no one has been able to figure out how to escalate a hand spanking so I can find blissful ecstasy in it. Or maybe I’m so sensitive that trying to get me there takes so long that it’s like watching paint dry.

Paddle me while I’m in blue jeans, however, and you’ll have me in heaven in no time. Dang, but doesn’t that feel good! And, if the friction’s right, I’ll get the spanking equivalent of rug burn. Yum!

I’ve found that for all the sting I can’t handle, I take a certain amount of thud just fine, thank you very much. The cane is exquisite torment. The paddle, trying. Especially if you use the spike side. (Beware: skin breaks damn easy. Which is fine with me, but if you’re taking my cue and bringing it to a partner, make sure you’re both prepared for it.) The flogger, the quirt, the single tail. I love to hate them all. And hate to love them as well.

If my experience can be both particular and varied, imagine the number of stories skilled writers can dream up. Maybe that’s why Rachel’s spanking anthologies work so well. So many implements, so many circumstances, so many perspectives…

Endless possibilities, all — and delicious reading for everyone.

Additional links: The Spanked, Red-Cheeked Erotica blog; the Spanked book trailer.

And oddly enough, you can blame it on author and screenwriter Larry McMurtry. A couple of weekends ago, I devoured his newest book, a memoir entitled Books: A Memoir. I had discovered its existence via New York Times article. I knew of McMurtry, thanks to my father’s love for his westerns. I had seen some of his movies, knew of course of his screenplay adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, and even knew of his life struggles to keep writing.

But I had no idea he was also an antiquarian book dealer, and where most people answer to his call of The West, I answer to his call of The Book. I ran right out and bought the book. Sure, its mention of Gershon Legman and the briefly excerpted tale surrounding an early de Sade grabbed my attention, but it also isn’t the first book about books I’ve read. I’ve a few rows of such books in my personal library.

McMurtry had only one further tale of an erotic nature — SF author Cordwainer Smith had, it seemed, a bra fetish and McMurtry acquired the man’s bra mannequin as part of an estate acquisition that included the man’s library — but I was impressed. It’s rare for a bookseller’s memoir to divulge tales of the eroticis libris with any regularity. In fact, if you’re looking for book tales about erotica, you’re pretty much limited to Roy Harley Lewis’s 1981 title, The Browser’s Guide to Erotica.

However, I have book tales to tell. And erotica as a genre is growing — via Romance fiction, but it is growing. There’s plenty of book material past and present to write about.

So I’m going to change the slant of Pursed Lips. Hence, the changed subtitle of this blog. It’s time I shared my book lust more fully with you. I’ve done a bit of this before, but for every tale I’ve told, another waits in the wings.

Keep an eye out, OK?