Review of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3

Grab yourself a copy of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 (Cleis Press, 2017)—not because I'm in it (tee hee!) but because it features a slew of well-written sexy stories by women. Highlights for me were:

"The Birthday Gift" by Abigail Barnette: a woman gives her husband a very special birthday gift, with the help of video, art supplies, and another woman.

"Weightless" by Rachel Zoe: the main character throws off the shackles of a bad relationship—and a coif—to find passion with her longtime and handy manfriend.

"Falling" by Charlie Powell: a woman reveals her disability to her date, and they get closer in a public place.

"A Stolen Story" by Leandra Vane: research into a local history leads a woman into a fantastic ménage that may or may not be supernatural!

"Making it Feel Right" by Annabel Joseph: a woman orders a rental Dom, and she turns the tables on him, and they both enjoy it. Women on top! (er, well, you get the idea…)

And there's plenty more stories to get you going, including "The Follow-Through" by me!

Spreading the Word

Best Women's Erotica of the Year is the central place to find out info about BWE3 (featuring “The Follow-Through” by yours truly) and the previous two editions.

You can find the audiobook here: Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3

Go to the free READING February 13 in Washington, DC!

Celebrate erotica by women!

Happy New Year

Here’s hoping 2018 will be waaaay better than the last two years!

Don’t forget to check out Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 for my story “The Follow-Through” and many others!

Pre-order Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3!

It's coming soon! Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3, will be out for your reading pleasure on November 21 (ebook) and December 12 (print).

I am pleased to announce that one of my stories will appear in this issue! Yay, me!  You can check out more information and the full introduction at the tumblr here.

Blurb:

Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 delivers the kind of sexy stories you want most: daring, bold, and surprising tales of women who pursue their boundless passions anywhere and everywhere. Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, winner of multiple Independent Publishing Book Awards, these scintillating scenarios turn the tables on how women are “supposed” to behave. Instead, these uninhibited vixens indulge in their favorite fetishes, do deliciously intimate “Body Shots,” and get tied up with “Red Satin Ribbons.” They pose nude, dress up, and roleplay, always obeying their most exhilarating impulses. These lusty ladies take your most cherished, private fantasies—from making a sex tape, to taking part in a thrilling threesome, to having a stud delivered to your door hot and ready—and make them come alive. Written by beloved authors Abigail Barnette, Annabel Joseph, and Charlotte Stein along with several genre newcomers, these are erotic encounters you’ll want to savor again and again and again…

Pre-order the Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 ebook for:

Kindle U.S.

Nook

Google Play

iBooks

Kobo

Amazon Canada Kindle

Amazon UK Kindle

Pre-order the print edition of Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 3:

Amazon U.S.

Bn.com

Powell’s

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (search for it at your local independent bookstore)

Amazon Canada

Amazon UK

Been so long...

It's been quite some time since I've posted a blog.  Even longer since I've had anything published.

At least I have a (teeny) excuse this year, as I've been dealing with some health issues that make me really not feel like writing.  But I've got to get myself in gear.  Time's slipping away...

2015

Thanks for the comment, Jeremy!

Now I can't get that Pearl Jam song out of my head.  "Lemon yellow sun..."

Writing is coming very slowly.  I don't know what to do about it.

Too Much or Not Enough

When it comes to calls for submission, I often find that what the editors want is either too narrow or too broad for what I’d like to write.

Example1: Underwater Romantic 19th Century Het Erotica : Mermen and Ladies, 10-20k words

• I’d be like: Oh, I had an idea that would fit all but ONE of those requirements (mine would be futuristic, M/M or M/F, 5k words, etc.)

Example2: Erotic Romance: Send us your best…erotic romance.

• I’d be like: “But, what kind?  Which one?  I have so many ideas…which one should I pick?”  Then I’d get stymied trying to make a decision that I end up not doing it after all.

Example of What I’d Prefer:

Underwater Erotica: all time periods equally accepted, all pairings/more-ings equally accepted, 3 - 10,000 words, romance nice but not required, mermaid/mermen welcome and “other” equally welcome, realistic settings and fantasy/sci fi equally accepted.

Many times I see a call for submission and I think of my WIPs and how I can make them fit the call…only to realize I’d end up changing something very important about my story to bang the sharp peg corners out to fit the round hole.  Why don’t they want what I want to write?????

OR: The perfect call comes along—asking for something that fits an idea or WIP I have perfectly—and the due date is 3 weeks from the time they announce it.  WHY????

Why do they ask for novel-length works and only give you a 3 month window?  How about a year?

Better anthology call deadline window, all you publishers:

• Flash fiction – up to 2000 words – at least 6 weeks
• Short fiction – 2000 - 7500 words – at least 3 months
• Novelettes – 7500-17,500 words – at least 6 months
• Short Novellas – 17,500 – 30,000 words – at least 9 months
• Novellas and Novels – over 30,000 words – at least 12 months

Doesn’t that make more sense??

What do erotica readers want to read?

Is there a poll somewhere asking erotica readers buyers what they want to read buy?

Rather, what to they want more of or want to see that isn’t already being published, en masse?

I’ll start.  I’d like to see more:

• People of color
• Single main characters over 40
• Humorous erotica

I’m sure I will think of more, later, after I’ve turned off the computer.

New book!

It’s here!
My story “Fuzzploitation” appears in the newly published Best Lesbian Romance 2014, edited by Radclyffe and published by Cleis Press.

Go buy and read it now!
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
All Romance Ebooks

My erotica and romance library…so far

Here's a collage of covers in which my short erotica appears so far:

"Waiting for the River", Best Women's Erotica 2009, Cleis Press, 2008.
"Hard to Hate Her", Best Lesbian Romance 2010, Cleis Press, 2009.
"Cecily", Girl Crush, Cleis Press, 2010.
"Surface Tension", Daily Flashes of Erotica Quarterly : Jan-March 2011, Pine Hill Press, 2010.
"Six eyes, two ears", Irresistible: Erotic Romance for Couples, Cleis Press, 2012.
"Fuzzploitation", Best Lesbian Romance 2014, Cleis Press, 2014.

Congratulations to me!

Just found out I got an acceptance!  It’s been…a very long time.  Whew hew!

Comment, please!

I can't comment on Blogger unless I enable cookies--do you have the same problem?

If comments aren't working for you, there's a comment form over to the right side.  Or, someone tell me how to get the normal comments working.  I even allow anonymous comments! For now, at least.

Out with the old

Getting rid of old PC today.  It’s still working, though old, and I’d really have preferred to donate it to a person or charity, but I’m too paranoid about the hard drive.  I’ve wiped it, several times, but I keep reading online that wiping isn’t enough.  You need to physically destroy the hard drive before you give it away.

I was going to do the Dell-Reconnect with Goodwill, but wouldn’t you know it – there’s not a location anywhere near me!  I thought all Goodwill stores were participating, but the closest one is in the next state.  Poo.  So, recycling it is.

They sure don’t make it easy.

I’ma test this out

…cause I’m an artist, and I’m sensitive about my shit!

So I just figured out I can update this using Windows Live Writer!  Excellent!

I’m on the shortlist for an anthology.  Keeping fingers crossed.

I’m finding it difficult lately to make writing decisions.  I think I’m going to write something, and then I change my mind, and then change it back again.  I’m a slow writer.  I wish calls for submission were posted a full year in advance of the deadline, regardless of the length.

I wish I could drink loads of caffeine.

I need someone to give me writing assignments with deadlines, and hold me accountable!  I do ok with deadlines!

I just don’t think I can write an entire 8000 word story in 2 weeks.  Not a good one, anyway.  I should be able to do it—I have written stories longer than that in shorter periods of time, but nothing suitable for publication.

I just don’t know.  My writing confidence is shot.

The Game of Waiting

Waiting to hear back about stories I've submitted.

Waiting to get in the mood to write.

Waiting to...feel...better.  For more than 15 minutes at a time.

Rejections

Rejection...rejection...rej...ugh.

The upside of getting rejected is that one now has a finished piece that one can submit elsewhere, possibly with little editing.

The downside, beyond the obvious, is that one doesn't know if one's piece was rejected because it didn't conform to the editor's guidelines, or it was received late, or if it just plain sucked.

I've had two rejections back to back, and am feeling very uninspired to write because of it.  That is not good.

But there's always hope.  Still waiting on decision for shorter erotic piece.  My fear, beyond the obvious, is that it may not have been erotic enough.

Is there such a thing as erotica-lite? 

Someone asked a question: What is the difference between loving someone and being "in love" with someone?

This is what I think:

When you love someone, you love them for who they really are.

When you are in love with someone, you love them for who you want them to be.

Am I brilliant or what?

Declutter

If you're like me, you have a pile of notebooks with your journals, "ideas", and angsty teenage love scratchings sitting in the corner of your room.  Or next to your computer.  What to do with all this paper?

I don't want to throw away recycle this, but I want to just...make it smaller.  Make it all smaller.  I wish I could snap my fingers and digitize half of my library.  Or just get one of those Wile E. Coyote Acme zappers and shrink it all down to the size of 1 box.  Or was that a de-moisture-izer, and it would all turn into a small cup of dust until, with the addition of a single drop of water, it would all magically scientifically reappear, re-materialize, re-matter?

What would be great would be if I could donate books to the local county library system with the stipulation that all titles would remain in circulation until I either move away, die, or, er, no longer care.  That way they'd be accessible to me and my fellow locals with good taste.  And that would solve my clutter problem.

Well, some of it.  I don't really foresee scanning all these notebook pages going back to the 80s in pdfs.  I just need more space!

A new old name

Am finishing up some new erotica this minute.

I'd love to see some comedic erotica anthologies.  Can I nominate myself editor?  (I am in no way qualified for that, by the way!)

Bibliography

What is in a name?


There are already many Kris Adams' out there.  What's an erotica writer to do?



A Sad Smirk.  Anagram.  Fitting one, too.  I went to an anagram maker, put in all versions of my real name, and all the possibilities were negative...sad...gloomy.  So, perfect.


Was Kris Atoms for a bit, but for now am going back to Kris Adams.  Will have to figure something else out, though.  Or should I call myself Smada Sirk?


My published erotic work, so far:


1. "Waiting for the River", Best Women's Erotica 2009, Cleis Press, 2008.

2. "Hard to Hate Her", Best Lesbian Romance 2010, Cleis Press, 2009.

  
3. "Cecily", Girl Crush, Cleis Press, 2010.

4. "Surface Tension", Daily Flashes of Erotica Quarterly : Jan-March 2011, Pine Hill Press, 2010.

5. "Six eyes, two ears", Irresistible: Erotic Romance for Couples, Cleis Press, 2012.

Must get to work writing more...

It's here!


My story "Six eyes, two ears" appears in Irresistible: Erotic Romance for Couples, from Cleis Press, edited by the lovely Rachel Kramer Bussel.

Get it now!


Can't wait to read the other stories as well!

First post

Super Bowl Sunday.


So, are the Yankees going to beat the Lakers in the bottom of the 9th?


Tee hee.


Super Bowl Sunday gives us an excuse to get munchies.  Already downed nearly an entire bag of Black Bean Tostito's nachos with guacamole.  Ughhhhhh....