Music Mondays: "Lose Yourself to Dance" by Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams

"Here, take my shirt and just go 'head and wipe up all the sweat." -- Pharrell Williams



Why, yes, thank you, Pharrell, I will take that shirt off you, and I appreciate that you offered...

What I love most about this video is how he's obviously having so much fun.

Mister Sister

I recently went to Mister Sister Erotica in Providence to grab some pictures of Alison Tyler's books in the wild. Today, at her blog, you can see the three I took. The thing is, because they've got a fantastic erotica section there, my pictures also show books from a bunch of other fantastic editors—Shanna Germain, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Kristina Wright, Violet Blue, and more. A bunch of my stories can be found there, too, in anthologies such as Best Bondage Erotica 2013 and 2014. So, it's an excellent place to go and find hot books!

The Mistress Under the Hill

A quick note to let you know about "The Mistress Under the Hill," a short story I've got forthcoming in Circlet Press's What Lies Beneath anthology. When I was asked to write this story, the challenge was to come up with sex-positive erotic horror. I invented a character who's pushed by society to side with the monsters. She's been punished for being sexually attractive her whole life, and as she claims the pleasures of her body, she also finds a way to escape her untenable position.

Frequent readers of my work will recognize my interest in masturbation and voyeurism.

On Hunger

At the Grip today, I wrote a heavy personal essay on my experiences with hunger in the context of domestic abuse.

After school, I begged some more, and if I was lucky the man I lived with would pick up a sandwich at a fast food place and allow me to eat half of it for dinner. What I didn't get was my own plate. I had to content myself with bites off his, and he salted everything he ate so heavily that his meals seemed covered in frost.

I've been experimenting with writing more personally lately, along with writing more politically. For me, the two seem linked.

Wait, What?

I've been reading a book about the history of clothing for women's breasts, and it's a fascinating read but I find myself constantly stopping to ponder the assumptions and implications the book contains. In a section describing Cretan women (who left their breasts bare but wore corsetry that pushed them up and out), there is a sequence of weird and sexist assumptions. The first couple are quotes from male historians from the early twentieth century, so I wasn't terribly surprised. Then the author weighs in with the following:

In fact, Cretan women were far from being sexual objects and played a primary role in society. They participated fully with men in the capture of bulls and the running of nautical expeditions. More significantly, it was they who formed the caste of bare-breasted priestesses who officiated at the rites of the female divinities worshiped by the society as a whole. But more important still, as the Greek historian Nicolas Platon informs us, Minoan civilization was the first to aestheticize adornment and give it the status of an art form, on a par with painting and sculpture.

-- from Support and Seduction: A History of Corsets and Bras, by Béatrice Fontanel

So, to recap:

1) Cretan women played a primary role in society.

2) More significantly than that, they were in charge of worship of divinities.

3) More important still (apparently more significant than political or religious equality for women), the Minoans were the first to aestheticize adornment.

I'm not one to argue against the significance of fashion, but this pulled me up short. One could discuss whether religious or secular power deserves top billing, but I'm pretty sure both trump the "aestheticization of adornment." Maybe the argument is that fashion endures but equality for women does not? A sad thought.

I do like the idea of a society that can handle women going around bare-breasted. I want to read more about the Cretans.

Three of Hearts

News catchup again. Someday I may manage to get all this stuff posted!

That picture above is for Kristina Wright's anthology, Three of Hearts, which is coming in October. My story is "Whose Anniversary Is It Anyway?"

I've had a few three-way relationships in my life (I said it that way to contrast with threesomes, which in my experience are different beasts). I'll be honest—they were a tricky balancing act. I was young, and I didn't know my way around the landscape. I didn't even know the word polyamory, and I'd never read anything like Tristan Taormino's fantastic book Opening Up (a book I would highly recommend for anyone who wants to consider nonmonogamy in its various permutations). So to write an erotic romance about a relationship involving three people and be honest, I didn't want to create a story that was entirely fantasy. I went for something I knew to have been an issue in my own experience—what happens when the love feels unequal and/or someone is feeling left out. The story's about that discomfort of unevenness, and particularly about the question of which significant dates should be celebrated, and how. Because, in my experience, anniversaries can cause a lot of conflict even for couples. They raise tons of expectations about romance and making a day "special." That issue can get even trickier with more than two people involved. Now, the characters in my story probably have read Opening Up and things like it, and they're a lot more mature than I was the last time this sort of thing came up for me, and they come up with a sexy way to work out their issues—so basically, they're well-equipped to have fun with this.

Three of Hearts
Table of Contents

Foreword Alison Tyler
Introduction: Three’s the Charm
Movie Night by Tiffany Reisz
An Extra Pair of Eyes by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Eve’s Apple Red by Angela Capteron
Experience and Expectations by Kathleen Tudor
The Mistress in the Brat by Skylar Kade
What Happens in Denver by Cheyenne Blue
Old Habits by Mina Murray
Medley of Desire by A.J. Lyle
A Thief in the Night by Giselle Renarde
Drinking Games with Cowboys by Axa Lee
The Last Day of Summer by Veronica Wilde
Full Circle by Jade Melisande
Whose Anniversary Is It Anyway? by Annabeth Leong
Limits of Endurance by Ariel Graham
Uncharted Seas by Chris Komodo
Three for the Road by Kristina Wright

Music Mondays: "Icicle" by Tori Amos

And when my hand touches myself
I can finally rest my head
And when they say take of his body
I think I'll take from mine instead
-- Tori Amos



Has there been any better song about masturbation? Loving erotica, how could I not adore her repetition of "feel the word?" Also, how hot and provocative is this performance?

I thought of this song because of Untouched, the book I've got coming out from Sweetmeats Press in August.

For a while, I've been developing a personal understanding of sexuality that places it as first and foremost within oneself. It can be shared with others, but the core is in oneself alone. For me, masturbation is a big part of that belief. And we all have a sex life of some kind regardless of when we last "got laid"—that's not required for proof of sex life. (I also believe in people's write to choose not to be sexual. I would say that this is also a decision rooted first and foremost in oneself—no matter how other people may try to make it about them).

The seed idea of Untouched was that I wanted to write a book about a character whose primary sex life and sexual expression was alone. I wanted her to have an intense and vibrant personal sex life and to like and enjoy that, but to struggle with how or if it should be shared. I also really love to write (and read) masturbation scenes—not enough of that in erotica, in my opinion.

The book grew a lot from there and developed into something far beyond my original idea, but at its heart, this remains: One's sex life is one's own. To me, that idea is kin to Tori Amos's, "I think I'll take from mine instead."