Archives: contemporary

New Flash story in “Marriage”

My flash piece, “Mine,” appears in Pure Slush Books / Bequem Publishing’s Marriage anthology. The latest in their Lifespan series, Marriage collects poetry and prose on all aspects of marriage and long-term cohabitation, including what my story tackles – sex and infidelity.

My legs wrapped around him, so passionately it threatened to roll us to the other side of the
bed. To his side, with its single thick ergonomic pillow. He pushed down with his hips, returning
my passion, but also pinning me in place.

-“Mine”

“Mine” is a prequel of sorts to my story “The Solution” in the Dancing with Myself anthology – which, by the way, may be going out of print soon, though it’s still available on Amazon, iBooks, and Kobo. It’s a sizzling collection of self-love erotica I’d hate for you to miss!

I’ve also been working on other interlinked stories that take place between “Mine” and “The Solution,” exploring betrayal, freedom, possessiveness, honesty, and desire.

You can read other excerpts from the Marriage anthology at Pure Slush’s blog post, “A Taste of Marriage.”

It’s available in Kindle format and as an epub and paperback through Lulu.com. (It’s not available as paperback through Amazon because the retail price would be prohibitive, and as the editor put it in an email, “Jeff Bezos is rich enough.” I won’t argue with that!)

To Have and To Hold – and to Excerpt

To whet your appetite for To Have and To Hold, released October 15 of 2019, I wanted to share my own favorite part:

“Maybe you should stop trying to make sense of my kinks,” he says, smiling.

“Yeah, maybe I should.”

With some reluctance, she takes her hand from his ass and leans over the side of the bed for her suitcase. He takes the items as she hands them up. The lube, the packets of gloves and condoms, and then the double-headed dildo. It’s in a marbled blue pattern that reminds her of the ocean. The “flesh” color didn’t match either of their skin tones, too pale for hers and too dark for his, and actually, she likes that this one doesn’t look at all realistic. What about any of this is realistic?

She’s married, to James, they’re on their honeymoon, the view outside her window looks like a postcard, and she’s about to fuck him just as he wants her to.

Claire leans over him as he spreads his legs, opening a space for her, exposing himself to her. She lifts his balls, already high and tight with his erection, and looks at him. He shivers, a tremble working its way up his thighs and turning into a wiggle along his hips and spine, as if her examination is overwhelming.

“You look good,” she says. “You’re so turned on.” One gloved finger runs along his cock, tracing a vein. “You don’t need to be shy.”

She actually can’t see a lot, his modesty protected by shadows and a little dark, curling hair. In itself that’s sexy to her. Claire has never thought of herself as the kind of person to be turned on by despoiling virgins, but there it is.

She brushes his hole with a lubed fingertip. “Okay?”

He pushes himself a little wider, another visible tremor moving along his legs. “Yes. Please.”

She feels him flex against her fingertip, not resisting but uncertain, so obviously self-conscious that it makes her smile coyly herself. As she pushes into him, his reaction is like stuttering, stammering, a shy flutter of muscles around her that makes her heart skip beats with utter adoration. He’s adorable.

“Oh my god,” she whispers as she slips further inside, eased by the slick lubricant and by the way he relaxes with a deep, slow breath. In a way it’s simpler than she feared but it’s also astonishing, this intimate opening of his body for her.

For adult fans of gentle femdom and vanilla dynamics alike, “To Have and to Hold” is a swooningly romantic and sizzlingly explicit short story about a honeymoon featuring first-time pegging–and herpes: maybe one of the sexiest ways to break down a taboo. With every copy sold, $1 will be donated to the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health (http://www.thecsph.org/), an organization that promotes education and dialogue about sexuality.

Pegging erotica for a good cause

Not just the cause of making pegging enthusiasts happy, although that is an excellent cause on its own.

To Have and To Hold is a piece of swooningly romantic and sizzlingly explicit couples’ erotica for fans of gentle femdom and vanilla dynamics alike! It’s about a deliriously hot honeymoon and features first-time pegging. And also herpes.

In tropical seclusion, Claire and James begin their new life together by trying out a new toy. At the same time, they weigh their options for protection in light of his HSV+ status, knowing nothing can come between them or put a dent in their ravenous lust for each other.

Originally planned for an anthology project called Positively Sexy, this short story was written in the belief that knockout-passionate writing is one of the sexiest ways to break down a taboo, and it’s being published to raise funds for more education work! With every copy sold, $1 will be donated to the Center for Sexual Pleasure and Health (http://www.thecsph.org/), an organization* that promotes dialogue about sexuality without fear or shame.
*Unaffiliated with me, except for the fact that I’m a fan of their work and CSPH had been intended to receive funds raised through the Positively Sexy.

To Have and to Hold is for pre-order now on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2mUHOgh

Look for the ebook’s release on Smashwords around Valentine’s Day 2020. For updates when it hits further bookstores, follow my Smashwords author profile, my blog on Goodreads, or subscribe to my mailing list.

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(Irresistible personal aside: Speaking of pegging enthusiasts…no, aladydoesn’ttellaladydoesn’ttellaladydoesn’ttell–back to the writing desk with me. Ignore whoever might be kneeling under it. God, I’m a sappy perv when in love <3.)

Love and Love and Love…

Happy belated Valentine’s Day, whoever you spent it with. Including and especially to those who spent it alone, as I did–not the worst of company! And not just because it means there’s no need to share the pile of chocolate assortments I got on discount the 15th of February. ;D

Without digging too much into personal drama, let’s just say I spent Valentine’s Day alone partially by choice, because being alone is better than being in poor company, or company that can’t accept you as you are. And as I’ve had reason to reckon with that, I found some comfort in thinking about my story in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s recently released anthology, Erotic Teasers. 

“I mean, it feels personal. I’m not sure if it is. Which is weird, right? Not that I don’t enjoy your company,” she added. “I like hanging out with guys. But women, too…”

Roland nodded. “Would you like to get a drink?”

“Sure.” Marisol smiled, but five minutes later she was frowning into her beer. “It’s just a guessing game, I guess.” A grimace at the echo. “But how did I get to be twenty-seven without knowing if I’m lesbian or straight?”

“There are other options,” Roland said.

She looked at him across the table. “Yeah. And it’s even more of a guessing game how people will react if you bring that up.”

“Well.” He tipped his glass toward her. “My boyfriend, my girlfriend, and I all fall on the continuum.”

Her eyes widened. Then her mouth did, showing teeth in a grin. “You have both?”

“They have me.” Maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the brightness of her smile and what it did to his heart jumping in his chest, but Roland decided to go all in. He pushed back his shirt sleeves and raised his wrists to show her.

As I mentioned in my blog post about my story in Best Lesbian Erotica, this story received a plot point, and some fuel, from certain signs held up at events in my generally pleasant Midwestern town. But it’s not just written out of defiance. I already had the idea of this poly group of two dominants, their submissive boyfriend, and the woman who joins them, and I was already excited about writing it, because it’s the kind of romantic fantasy that warms my heart (and not just my heart, I’ll admit, if we’re going to get personal).

More about the story, including another tease of an excerpt, is available HERE.

Meanwhile, I do have “set up an OKCupid” profile on my to-do list, so maybe a year from now I won’t have chosen to be single… but whatever you may be, so long as you’re being true to yourself, I’m happy for you and those you love in all the ways you love each other. And if you haven’t yet found your truth, I wish you luck. It’s worth finding.

Cliterature’s 50th Issue

For their 50th issue of poetry, short fiction, and essays addressing the intersection of women’s sexuality, Cliterature has released the double-sized “Anthology“.

It includes my piece, “Manifesto,” best described as a fictional essay–written in a voice that is not quite my own. Actually, the voice belongs to the heroine of my NaNo novel. But her manifesto certainly draws a lot on my own reading and thinking.

What I’m trying to do with the parable above (besides explain why I couldn’t see you on Saturday) is make the point that I hate appearing soft, sweet, harmless. But it’s not that I hate softness, sweetness, harmlessness themselves.

Because you’re soft. Sweet. And I’d trust you with my life.

You’re, if you’ll excuse my saying so, pretty fucking cute. And I like it.

For that matter, especially when it comes to you, I don’t hate being harmless. Maybe I do want to be defanged. I want to do things to you that could hurt, without you being hurt. (Please believe me that I never want you to be hurt.) Is that benign, compassionate, or simply unrealistic? Careless, even?

I’d like to write a little more about the things I want to do to you.

I’m writing this while I’m supposed to be writing something else, because I’ll always be supposed to be writing something else. For the rest of my life.

That’s exhausting to think about, somehow less exhausting to write down. Feels better to have it contained on the page. Although writing is also exhausting, and it’s exhausting to think about how much is left to be written—which, according to this writer Cixous I’ve been reading in my downtime (by which I mean reading when I should be doing something else), is almost everything.

About sex, specifically. And this manifesto of mine is about sex, specifically. But you already knew that.

You can read the full story HERE.

Dancing With Myself Release: “The Solution”

Today is the release date for Dancing With Myself, an anthology of self-love erotica. What a beautiful phrase–“self-love.” In all it senses. Interestingly, one might argue that the protagonist of my piece in this anthology, “The Solution,” doesn’t have a lot of reason to love herself.

“The Solution” is a story that’s been on my mind for a while. Even with this, it’s still not fully purged; I suspect it’s one of those beasties that might turn into a novel one day. I starting writing it when I was reflecting on how several of my favorite erotic novels–everything from Megan Hart’s Tear You Apart to  Kate Chopin’s The Awakening–center around adultery.

What’s up with that?

I’ve got theories: not the lies, but the secrecy certainly touches on something in me, and I’ve always been personally a bit skeptical of monogamy. It’s definitely something more fun to read and write about than to do, but there is that fascination that always surrounds people behaving badly.

I wondered if Dom had ever worried about me, all the nights I’d been out late. Maybe he’d been glad to have his space, just as I was glad to have mine on those evenings he claimed to have meetings or buddies waiting for him at some bar. Once I figured out where he’d really been going, I claimed more than space. I took pleasure, I took control. That was what it felt like at the time, at least.

The story centers, then, around that headspace–the thrill of doing what you know is wrong, but feeling justified in it anyway. A place where selfishness isn’t quite the same as self-love. But it’s as much about the other people involved in these brief-lived affairs, some of them one or two-night infidelities:

Dirty, he’d called me when I showed him how to get me off. I’d grabbed his hand and guided it to where mine now was, riding his fingers and rutting against his palm. His wrist had twisted in my grip and he’d panted about my perversity. I’m not sure which part he found so perverse. When I’d gone further, grasping his cock to control how it slid inside me, he’d been able to say nothing at all. Had that been worth violating my marriage vows for? That, and Heather, and Claire and Matt, and Joshua’s lips wrapping around my nipples as his fingers cupped and kneaded my ass, and Scott’s grin as he followed me down the dim corridor…

It’s a story about memory, and having it all at once, and having none of it, and learning how to love yourself once again. After all, you’re the one person you have no choice but to be faithful to.

Dancing With Myself is available on Amazon and Smashwords. More updates will be added to “The Solution’s” story page as they come.

New Release: “My Body is a Haunted House” in MoFo Pub’s HOTEL

Click “Continue Reading” for an excerpt from the opening scene of “My Body is a Haunted House”

The stories in this anthology explore what happens in those most impersonal of private spaces—hotels.

Hotel. The very word conjures a sense of transience. Hotel takes you into a world without permanence. Between these pages, lovers meet and lovers part. Elegant, sensual prose takes you from grand ballrooms with lavish appointments to shabby heaps where you pay by the hour.

Sneak a titillating glimpse behind closed doors, where whatever can happen just might.

Transience, transgression, and transformation seem to be the order of the day–or night–in this anthology. My story, “My Body is a Haunted House,” links two women together at an occasion of transformation: their (ex-)husband’s funeral.

Continue reading