Begging, my friends: It pays.
Behold the cover to Journey to the Center of Desire, edited by Jen Blackmore, coming soon from Circlet Press. After spotting SUBTLE CLUES (translation: a background on the editor's blog) suggesting this cover is a thing that exists in this world, I excitedly begged to get copies of those pictures, too, and the Aetherist herself kindly obliged.
It's cool, yeah?
My story is called "Journey to the Disappearing Sea." It's about a dude who doesn't realize how irrelevant he is. No, wait, that's not quite right. It's narrated by Axel, the hero (and whiny center) of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth. In the original, Axel loves to talk about "his little Gräuben," so I decided to talk about her a whole lot more. In short, I decided to make her the much cooler star of her own adventure.
Was I fantasizing? Well... yes. But hopefully I'll make you fantasize, too.
I'll share more details (like a release date!) when I can get them. And I might also post a few paragraphs to whet your appetite...
Showing posts with label cover art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cover art. Show all posts
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Friday, May 13, 2016
Guest Cover Reveal: The Tutor
I'm really interested in erotica that explores nontraditional territory, as any fans of my work will know. My book, Untouched, focuses on a character who is sexually voracious but can't stand to be touched. She starts out treating her condition as a problem, but in the end claims and embraces it, declares that she's worthy of love as she is, and does a lot of hot things on the way to that realization.
I personally am very turned on by limitations. (I mentioned this recently at a workshop I was teaching, and an astute friend and reader commented, "Says the person who wrote an entire erotic novel about someone who doesn't like to be touched." I thought it was a good point.) I often think that's what hottest isn't doing anything and everything but finding ways to accommodate desire around the needs of the individuals involved in an encounter.
That said, I was fascinated to learn about KD Grace's forthcoming novel, The Tutor, which also explores sexual situations that don't involve direct touch. The glimpses I've gotten are evocative and intriguing, and I know KD Grace to be a fabulous, creative, generous writer. Her book will be available for preorder starting August 30th, for early download from her publisher's website (Totally Bound) starting September 13th, and for general release from all over the place starting October 11th.
I'm very excited to share an early look at it. Without further ado, I'll turn this over to KD:
***
Sometimes It Sizzles When Things Go Pear-Shaped
by KD Grace
I've been barely able to contain myself this past two weeks, just bursting to tell you the good news, and now at last I can. Not only can I tell you that my steamy contemporary romance novel, The Tutor, has been snapped up by the Totally Entwined imprint of Totally Bound, but I can now reveal the gorgeous cover which sizzles with the creative genius of Emmy Ellis.
The Tutor has a very special place in my heart because it had its beginnings last October at Smut Manchester during Kay Jaybee's wonderfully wicked "trip to the supermarket" workshop on inspiration. We were all given an item from the supermarket shelf and told we'd been called over the loudspeaker to go to the stockroom. From that we were to write the beginnings of a story about what we'd find in the stockroom and what we'd do with our item in said stockroom. I still remember the smug little smirk on Ms. Jaybee's face when she handed me the slip of paper that read A tin of pears in heavy syrup. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that before the weekend was out, I'd have the seeds for a novel that just had to be written. In fact, it needed to be written so badly that I signed up for NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month in November and wrote the whole 95K in one month! Here's just a taste of the end result. Enjoy!
Blurb:
Struggling writer Kelly Blake has a secret life as a sex tutor. Celebrated sculptor and recluse, Alexander ‘Lex’ Valens, can’t stand to be touched. When he seeks out Kelly’s advice incognito, the results are too hot to handle. When Kelly terminates their sessions due to what she considers her unprofessional behavior, Lex takes a huge risk, revealing his identity to her at a gala exhibition, his first ever public appearance. When Kelly helps the severely haphephobic Lex escape the grope of reporters and paparazzi, rumors fly that the two are engaged, rumors encouraged by well-meaning friends and colleagues. The press feeding frenzy forces Kelly into hiding at Lex’s mansion where he convinces her to be his private tutor just until the press loses interest, and she can go back home. They discover quickly that touch is not essential for sizzling, pulse-pounding intimacy. But intimacy must survive the secrets uncovered as their sessions become more and more personal.
Excerpt:
“Was this your idea or Dillon’s? Kelly asked, hoping to relax him.
“It was mine, after Andy told Dillon and he told me. I thought it was something that I …” The muscles along Lex’s jaw looked as though they were made out of iron, and a fine blush crawled up his neck tinting his ears bright pink. “I’ve never touched a woman … in that way.” He forced a laugh. “Obviously. I’ve …” the blush deepened and he avoided her gaze. “I’ve put lube on some of the sculptures – you know -- down there, but I … well it isn’t the same.”
“The pears won’t be either,” she said, her heart suddenly aching at the physical isolation this man endured on a daily basis, and it wasn’t just her heart that ached, she felt his lack deep in her core. It had been easier with Andy. She had been almost flippant with him. She was sorry for that now. She spread one of the towels on the Queen Anne chair across from him and settled herself onto it so they were facing each other. “The texture will be different and with the pear there’ll be less give.” She dipped her fingers in the bowl and rubbed the heavy juice between her index finger and her thumb. “If you touch a woman, she’ll be much warmer.” She gave him a conspiratorial smile. “You’ll be amazed at how warm and how soft she’ll be down there when she’s ready to be touched. With Andy, this,” she nodded down to the pears, “was improvisation, this was the best I could do under the circumstances, but a woman, well a woman feels like nothing you’ve ever touched before.”
He was no longer avoiding her gaze. His eyes were locked on her, and he was struggling to keep them on her face, she knew that; she understood the urge for him to drop his eyes to the place of which she spoke, the place with which she was so intimate, the place that couldn’t help but respond to the topic, to the situation, to the strange intimacy they had shared almost since the moment they’d met. “You can look, if you want,” she opened her legs so that he could see the place in between clothed in black denim, completely disguised and yet so very obvious. “And I’ll look at you too,” she nodded down to his own jeans straining to contain him already. “It’s what men and woman are naturally inclined to do when there’s a sexual attraction.”
With her heart hammering in her throat, she took one of the pear halves into the cupped palm of her left hand, then she brought it down between her spread thighs, feeling the juice of it run over her fingers and drip onto the towel as she spread her legs a little farther and held her pam to mimic the position of her vulva. “Touch it like a woman would touch it, and you’ll always get it right.” She drug her index and middle finger up from the bottom of the pear to the center and felt her own body respond in empathy. “The pear has no folds, no secret valleys, no swollen flesh to be teased open, so you’ll have to use your imagination with that.”
Lex gave a little moan soft and deep in his chest as he shifted to make himself more comfortable. “I know the anatomy,” he said. “I’ve watched porn and I’ve studied drawings. I know how it looks like it might feel. I know the response it elicits.” His tongue flicked nervously over his upper lip. “Of course that’s just acting, isn’t it?”
“Porn is about fantasy, about voyeurism, and it doesn’t matter if it’s real if it gets you off. But when it is real,” she spread her index and middle finger up the sides of the pear’s central opening, “if you’re good, if your sensitive, you’ll feel the spasms of your lover’s orgasm, even see them if you’re using your tongue; and you can feel them gripping at your cock when your inside her. If you’re paying attention.
“The clitoris,” she laughed softly, “Well with Andy I used a Ticktack, but he’s a chemistry major. He likes charts and graphs and periodic tables. You’re an artist, you live in your imagination, so you don’t need a Ticktack. Some women like the thumb stroking and circling while the other fingers work inside. Some women like to use their fingers.” She demonstrated on the pear, and Lex groaned. “It’s always best to ask and be sure.”
“What do you like?” His words were a labored rasp against the back of his throat, and Kelly found herself stunned by the question, and way more aroused than she wanted to be. He shouldn’t have asked. She should have answered. But she did.
“I like it this way.” She shifted her hips and opened a little further so he could see her thrust and scissor, circle and probe technique, and her body responded with the tight grip and release of muscle memory.
“Jesus,” he whispered, moving forward on the sofa and leaning closer for a better look. “And when someone uses their tongue?”
She caught her breath in a giddy laugh. “Afraid I can’t tell you what I do since, sadly I’m not that flexible.”
“But you can tell me what you like.” His voice had gone rough.
“I like the flat of the tongue to part me and then probe me, circle my clit and then kiss and suck.” She closed her eyes, finding it difficult to meet his gaze when she spoke about something so intimate, so secret. Come to think of it, she’d never had a man actually ask her how she liked it. The few who had given a rat’s ass about her pleasure had been happy enough to let her order them about, but never quite got the hang of it.
It was the loud schussing sound that caused her to open her eyes. Lex had moved the coffee table out of the way paying no attention to the slosh of pear juice all over the towel V had spread. His eyes were locked on Kelly as he fished out his own pear half and fell to his knees in front of her. When she realized what the man was about to do she dropped the pear she’d been holding with a little gasp of surprise and scooted as far back in the chair as she could. He knelt low, holding the pear in the cup of his hand, as she had, placing it against the edge of the chair between her legs! She gave a little yelp and scrambled back in the chair still further, spreading her thighs over the rise of the chair arms to keep from touching him. He moved forward, the back of his hand so close to her crotch that she could feel the heat of it, and he lowered himself still further until his hair nearly brushed the insides of her thighs. Then, still looking up at her from his position on the floor, he began at the bottom of the open pear half and ran his tongue flat and undulating all the way up, flicking in just slightly in a little circle at the top end before he closed his lips around the apex and she could hear the slurp and suck of the sweet syrup.
“Oh! Lex! Ah!” And then she went non-verbal, holding her breath, tightening muscles deep inside her body, the only muscles she dared to move if she were to keep from touching him. She raised both arms and fisted her hands in a suicide grip around the back of the chair to keep from curling them in his hair. Her thighs trembled from her efforts to keep her legs on the chair arms and not throw them over his shoulders for leverage. She didn’t move. She didn’t breath as he licked and nuzzled and suckled until pear juice ran down his chin and onto his tee-shirt, until his face was damp and sticky, until his forehead was sheened with perspiration, and still he held her gaze as though they were locked together in each other’s orbit neither able to move without the other’s consent.
“Oh God, I’m gonna come.” She barely managed a warning when his own convulsion brought him dangerously near her body. He had stopped breathing, she was sure of it. She practically climbed the back of the chair to keep from touching him as he lost control. Then with a tremendous gasp of oxygen, he straightened, let the pear fall from his hand onto the aubusson carpet and looked up at her.
“I’m going to pass out.” And he did.
About K D Grace/Grace Marshall:
Voted ETO Best Erotic Author of 2014, and a proud member of The Brit Babes, K D Grace believes Freud was right. In the end, it really is all about sex, well, sex and love. And nobody’s happier about that than she is. Otherwise, what would she write about?
When she’s not writing, K D is veg gardening. When she’s not gardening, she’s walking. She walks her stories, and she’s serious about it. She and her husband have walked Coast to Coast across England, along with several other long-distance routes. For her, inspiration is directly proportionate to how quickly she wears out a pair of walking boots. She also enjoys martial arts, reading, watching the birds and anything that gets her outdoors.
K D has erotica published with SourceBooks, Xcite Books, Harper Collins Mischief Books, Mammoth, Cleis Press, Black Lace, Sweetmeats Press and others.
K D’s critically acclaimed erotic romance novels include The Initiation of Ms Holly, Fulfilling the Contract, To Rome with Lust, and The Pet Shop. Her paranormal erotic novel, Body Temperature and Rising, the first book of her Lakeland Witches trilogy, was listed as honorable mention on Violet Blue’s Top 12 Sex Books for 2011. Books two and three, Riding the Ether, and Elemental Fire, are now also available.
K D Grace also writes hot romance as Grace Marshall. An Executive Decision, Identity Crisis, The Exhibition, Interviewing Wade are all available.
Find K D Here:
Websites: http://kdgrace.co.uk/
http://www.thebritbabes.co.uk
Labels:
cover art,
cover reveal,
erotic romance,
excerpt,
guest post,
haphephobia,
KD Grace,
The Tutor,
untouched
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Out in 2016
Last year was a quiet year for me. I wrote much less than I did in the few years previous, both on my blog and in terms of stories and novels. I think I needed that retreat, even though it felt very uncomfortable at the time.
One reason for that slowness and relative silence was that I had a lot of private stuff I was working out. I'm not and have never been particularly comfortable with sorting things out in public. I'm generally happy to tell people about the thing that was bothering me six months ago—I've had time to figure out where I stand with respect to that and heal up a little bit. Talk about what's bothering me right now? Not so much.
It always seemed strange and cruel to me that these days writers are expected to participate so much in social media. Publishing, for me, is an excruciatingly public thing that I have a lot of mixed feelings about. In order to write, I need a lot of privacy, not just in a physical way but also in a mental way. It's hard for me to be in public every day, Internet included.
That said, I think part of why I've held myself back is that I'm afraid of saying things I shouldn't say, for whatever reason. For example, I've been incredibly frustrated for years about the way covers in erotica and erotic romance so often feature straight, white, thin-bodied people. If you judged by the covers of the books my work has been in, you'd have no idea what my writing is actually about, what my social justice values are. This cover thing has happened not only for anthologies I've participated in, but also for books I've written entirely myself. And yet, it's not something I've talked about publicly. I was always afraid that doing so would make me a "difficult" author. I was afraid of appearing angry in public.
My mood this year feels a little different. I had to retreat for a while, yes, but I've also been holding a lot of myself in, and I feel done with that for the moment.
So I want to try being more open on this blog. I want to talk about some of the things I'm angry about, because it's burning me up to hold back on all those things. I also want to talk about who I am, to the best of my knowledge. I've had a lot of turmoil over the past couple of years, figuring out who I am as a writer, as far as orientation, within the kink community, you name it. I feel less afraid than I used to of being myself in the open.
So if you're reading this, wish me luck. I'm a queer, poly, kinky, mixed-race woman, and I want to be out in 2016.
One reason for that slowness and relative silence was that I had a lot of private stuff I was working out. I'm not and have never been particularly comfortable with sorting things out in public. I'm generally happy to tell people about the thing that was bothering me six months ago—I've had time to figure out where I stand with respect to that and heal up a little bit. Talk about what's bothering me right now? Not so much.
It always seemed strange and cruel to me that these days writers are expected to participate so much in social media. Publishing, for me, is an excruciatingly public thing that I have a lot of mixed feelings about. In order to write, I need a lot of privacy, not just in a physical way but also in a mental way. It's hard for me to be in public every day, Internet included.
That said, I think part of why I've held myself back is that I'm afraid of saying things I shouldn't say, for whatever reason. For example, I've been incredibly frustrated for years about the way covers in erotica and erotic romance so often feature straight, white, thin-bodied people. If you judged by the covers of the books my work has been in, you'd have no idea what my writing is actually about, what my social justice values are. This cover thing has happened not only for anthologies I've participated in, but also for books I've written entirely myself. And yet, it's not something I've talked about publicly. I was always afraid that doing so would make me a "difficult" author. I was afraid of appearing angry in public.
My mood this year feels a little different. I had to retreat for a while, yes, but I've also been holding a lot of myself in, and I feel done with that for the moment.
So I want to try being more open on this blog. I want to talk about some of the things I'm angry about, because it's burning me up to hold back on all those things. I also want to talk about who I am, to the best of my knowledge. I've had a lot of turmoil over the past couple of years, figuring out who I am as a writer, as far as orientation, within the kink community, you name it. I feel less afraid than I used to of being myself in the open.
So if you're reading this, wish me luck. I'm a queer, poly, kinky, mixed-race woman, and I want to be out in 2016.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
MakerSex cover and TOC
I am so pleased to announce that MakerSex: Erotic Stories of Hackers, Geeks, and DIY Projects will be out in March! (Exact date TBA). This was my first editing project for Circlet Press, and I'm so excited to share it with you.
Here is the (absolutely gorgeous!) cover:
And the table of contents:
Introduction by Annabeth Leong
The Not So Wholesome Origins of Cuddle-Bot by Lillian Marguerite
Making Love by Renata Piper
Shiny New Toy by Moxie Marcus
The Junkyard by TS Porter
Lightning Then, and Motion by Eric Del Carlo
The Forge by Kelly Rose Pflug-Back
Look for more news about this soon! :) If you use tumblr, you can watch for much more news about the book here. If you're interested in reviewing the book on Amazon or Goodreads, please drop me a line at annabeth dot circlet at outlook dot com.
Here is the (absolutely gorgeous!) cover:
And the table of contents:
Introduction by Annabeth Leong
The Not So Wholesome Origins of Cuddle-Bot by Lillian Marguerite
Making Love by Renata Piper
Shiny New Toy by Moxie Marcus
The Junkyard by TS Porter
Lightning Then, and Motion by Eric Del Carlo
The Forge by Kelly Rose Pflug-Back
Look for more news about this soon! :) If you use tumblr, you can watch for much more news about the book here. If you're interested in reviewing the book on Amazon or Goodreads, please drop me a line at annabeth dot circlet at outlook dot com.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Cover Reveal: Dirty Little Numbers

Pretty, huh? Go Deeper Press always designs great covers, and this is the one for Dirty Little Numbers, which will include my anal masturbation story, "Too Much to Give."
Monday, August 26, 2013
Cover Reveal: Run for Your Love
The incredible Victoria Miller has done it again! This is the cover for my forthcoming zombie erotic romance from Breathless Press, and I couldn't be happier! More details to come!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
The Fugitive's Sexy Brother

Just got the cover art for my bounty hunter-themed BDSM book, The Fugitive's Sexy Brother, which will be out later this year from Ellora's Cave. Pretty, huh?
Friday, February 8, 2013
Get Laid Cover
I just got the cover for my forthcoming Ellora's Cave book, Get Laid, and it's a beauty! I particularly like that the male cover model is exactly the sort of hot Asian man I imagined as my hero.
In addition to Get Laid, I have another book coming from Ellora's Cave, currently titled The Fugitive's Sexy Brother. More details when I've got them!
In addition to Get Laid, I have another book coming from Ellora's Cave, currently titled The Fugitive's Sexy Brother. More details when I've got them!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Not His Territory
Check out the cover to my forthcoming werewolf book, Not His Territory. Truly, the art department at Breathless Press has outdone itself. Here's a description of the book, which is slated for release in October:
Raul Silva is an investigator for the Werewolf Council, and has dedicated his life to procedures, regulations, and holding back the beast within. When he visits Big Timber, Montana, to investigate reports of unruly pack behavior, he meets Chandra Williams, ex-wife of the local pack alpha and the best reason he's ever found to unleash the beast. According to Council law, she still belongs to the pack alpha, but Chandra insists that she is not his territory. How many rules will Raul break for Chandra's sake?
This isn't the first time Breathless has unleashed a wickedly hot cover for a werewolf book. Remember how hot and bothered I got over the cover for Ravaged? The good news is you don't have to wait until October for this one. It releases in early August, and you can preorder now.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Arthur Rackham and Me

This cover for The Three Wives of Bluebeard is based on public domain art by Arthur Rackham, which gives me a fun thrill. Arthur Rackham is my favorite fairy tale illustrator, and I find it delightfully ironic that he's inadvertently wound up illustrating my lesbian threesome version of Bluebeard.
Story should be released soon!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Yowza! Cover Art for Ravaged
I'm going to have to go lie down for a while now that I've seen this cover art for Ravaged, a forthcoming anthology of werewolf erotica from Breathless Press that will contain my story, "The Arcadian Cure." I love when I see a cover that makes my heart pound! And I'm sure the stories inside will keep the blood flowing, too... ;)
Edit (5/5/12): Cover replaced w/ corrected version (author names corrected).
Thursday, April 26, 2012
The Fantastic Art of Siol na Tine
You may have noticed some lovely cover images gracing my blog recently. Many of them are thanks to Siol na Tine, an artist who has recently begun working with Forbidden Fiction. I've heard a lot about how cover artists rarely get sufficient appreciation -- authors will go on about how great the cover is without bothering to find out who did the work. I've been really struck by Siol na Tine's covers from the start -- for one thing, I could really tell the artist was paying attention to details of the stories. The images also have a distinctive style, and great use of color.
For example, In the Death of Winter, a forthcoming story, is loosely based on Mongolian mythology. I took a lot of liberties and created my own fantasy narrative, but I was careful to make the climate and vegetation plausibly Mongolian, and the main God character in the story is based on a Mongolian figure known as Erglik or Erlik. As soon as I saw Siol na Tine's cover, I knew this background had been preserved. The bound postulant pictured is clearly not a white girl. The figure of Erlik matches traditional distinctive features of the God (such as the twisted black horns). It's incredibly gratifying to see this sort of vision carried through. I've heard horror stories about "whitewashed" covers, where characters of distinctive ethnicities suddenly become blond and white. I make a point of trying to identify my characters as coming from somewhere specific, and it's great to have the publisher and artist respect and preserve that effort.
For The Snake and the Lyre, Eurydice has a Greek appearance, and the artist has captured several key elements of the story.
I'm not the only one to benefit, though. I've inserted pictures of a couple other great covers, including the one Siol na Tine did for Mina Kelly's A Little Night Swimming, and the one for Kailin Morgan's Underneath It All.
I've been pleased that Forbidden Fiction has put the effort in to produce covers even for shorter works, and it's particularly exciting to see them take on an artist so interested in the mythological and folkloric roots of the stories being illustrated.
Siol na Tine has written an introduction here, which gives insight into the process of producing covers and the research that goes into them.
If you want to see more from Siol na Tine, check out this flickr stream related to Forbidden Fiction -- you can also see sketches of staff members. It was really fun for me to put faces to all these people I've been e-mailing.
For example, In the Death of Winter, a forthcoming story, is loosely based on Mongolian mythology. I took a lot of liberties and created my own fantasy narrative, but I was careful to make the climate and vegetation plausibly Mongolian, and the main God character in the story is based on a Mongolian figure known as Erglik or Erlik. As soon as I saw Siol na Tine's cover, I knew this background had been preserved. The bound postulant pictured is clearly not a white girl. The figure of Erlik matches traditional distinctive features of the God (such as the twisted black horns). It's incredibly gratifying to see this sort of vision carried through. I've heard horror stories about "whitewashed" covers, where characters of distinctive ethnicities suddenly become blond and white. I make a point of trying to identify my characters as coming from somewhere specific, and it's great to have the publisher and artist respect and preserve that effort.
For The Snake and the Lyre, Eurydice has a Greek appearance, and the artist has captured several key elements of the story.
I'm not the only one to benefit, though. I've inserted pictures of a couple other great covers, including the one Siol na Tine did for Mina Kelly's A Little Night Swimming, and the one for Kailin Morgan's Underneath It All.
I've been pleased that Forbidden Fiction has put the effort in to produce covers even for shorter works, and it's particularly exciting to see them take on an artist so interested in the mythological and folkloric roots of the stories being illustrated.
Siol na Tine has written an introduction here, which gives insight into the process of producing covers and the research that goes into them.
If you want to see more from Siol na Tine, check out this flickr stream related to Forbidden Fiction -- you can also see sketches of staff members. It was really fun for me to put faces to all these people I've been e-mailing.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Less Than a Day
My story Less Than a Day launched last night on Forbidden Fiction. Here's the blurb:
Tod is a harbinger of imminent death. He doesn't use his powers for good—instead he offers women a last fuck before they die. Jaded, Tod is surprised when one woman gets to him like no other. The last sex of her life is the best sex of his.
I'll be posting an excerpt and talking a lot more about this story in days to come, but I wanted to get the news up right away rather than waiting for time to write "the perfect post."
I've had a great experience working with Forbidden Fiction so far, and am very grateful for the efforts of all their editors and proofreaders. In particular, I'm appreciative of the lovely cover they produced for my story.
Please check out Less Than a Day, and, while you're at it, browse Forbidden Fiction's other recent releases. I'm in very good company over there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)














