The Only Way to Celebrate Christmas Around Here...

...is with Julian Casablancas, of course.



Happy holidays, whichever ones you celebrate. I have scheduled this post ahead, and sincerely hope I am not working as you read this.

Then A Miracle Occurs

There's a famous cartoon by Sidney Harris that shows scientists at a board pointing at a complex proof. Between all the math, someone has written, "Then a miracle occurs." Obviously, this is unsatisfying, and yet that comic is so popular because it's captured something very true.

I know a lot about the writing craft. I have a master's degree in writing, have spent my entire adult life making a living this way in one field or another, have done much study and practice on my own, and have attended more workshops than I can count. I've worked with excellent and talented editors, many of whom taught me more than all my formal training put together. I have published hundreds of thousands of words of fiction and nonfiction, and written many hundreds of thousands more.

And yet...

When it comes down to it, I still don't know what goes on when I write my stories. The day before something is due I often don't know how the hell I'm going to make it work and get to the end.

And then a miracle occurs.

(Note: It pleases me thematically to schedule this post for Christmas Eve, but I don't intend to say that miracle is Jesus or anything.)

Twelve Days of Kinkmas

Nina came home from shopping on Black Friday to find her lover, Julia, wearing nothing but a pair of black panties and tying a bow over her pussy.

Nina dropped her shopping bags on the floor just inside the front door to their apartment to drink in the sight of Julia spread out on their light green couch, the fabric bringing out the green in her otherwise blue eyes, muscles taut as she lifted her torso off the couch to observe her own handiwork and a tiny crease of concentration adorning the bridge of her bold nose. Her breasts trembled slightly, betraying the effort it took to hold herself up in that position. Her long brown hair hung in exuberant corkscrews down her back, arms, and front, allowing Nina only the most tantalizing glimpses of her bare nipples.

"What are you doing, babe?" Nina asked, already planning how she might involve herself in Julia's activities.

Julia jumped and turned a startled gaze on Nina, her eyes wide and innocent. "Nothing!"

"It doesn't look like nothing. It looks like something that's already getting my panties very wet."

Julia tied the finishing touch on the bow. She'd used a satin ribbon stained a deep, rich red. The color brought out the pink tones in her skin, making it seem as if a light blush glowed from her everywhere. "It's your Christmas present."

"It's a month from Christmas." Nina stepped closer. "How about I open it now?"

"No! Absolutely not!" Julia sat straight up, her face stern and her arms crossed over her breasts. Nina couldn't help noticing the way the gesture pushed them upward, emphasizing their enticing curves.

She grinned. "Absolutely not? Even if I beg?"

An unmistakable shudder shook Julia's body. "Especially not if you beg."

That's the beginning of my story, "Don't Open Until Christmas," which appears in F. Leonora Solomon's Twelve Days of Kinkmas. If you're looking to get into the kinky holiday spirit, I recommend you pick it up at Ravenous Romance, Amazon, All Romance, Barnes & Noble, or wherever else you like to buy books!

And happy holidays to all!

Winter Warmers: The Day Before Twenty-Four Surprises

My fellow Winter Warmers author Tilly Hunter has also agreed to share a few details about what her characters were doing the day before her story, "Twenty-Four Surprises," takes place!

Sam is busy putting all Tom’s chocolates into the calendar in the right order while he’s working late; twenty-four melt-in-the-mouth delights that she has just bought from their local deli-cum-confectioners. She’s carefully considered the flavours Tom likes best and is pleased with herself for coming up with the idea of home-made Advent calendars for each other. But she’s worried Tom might not be taking it as seriously as she is. She’ll probably get twenty-four squares broken off a bar of Dairy Milk. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts.

Meanwhile, Tom is very glad that since he owns his own business, he can access whatever he likes on the computers at work. But only after the rest of the staff have left. He has twenty-four photos to print off so he can fold them up and hide them behind the Advent calendar’s doors to represent the implements he plans to use. Some of the pictures are on his phone – taken over the past week of all the seemingly innocent items he’s found at home that can be put to other uses. Others are a matter of revisiting the online stores he’s shopped at over the past couple of weeks. I bet Sam has no idea I’m putting this much effort in, he thinks, she’s probably expecting me to forget altogether. Well, he’s going to make this Advent special for her – with some benefits for himself, of course. She’s probably forgotten all about the drunken conversation in which she confessed she wanted him to spank her and went into some detail of how she’d like it to happen. Tom’s looking forward to warming her backside on his own terms, if he can just keep up his stern Victorian gentleman act without bursting out laughing.

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Story blurb: When Sam suggests that she and Tom make Advent calendars for each other instead of buying them off the shelf, she has tasty chocolates in mind. But while she fills Tom’s with twenty-four treats from their local deli, he is planning something completely different. Something that is going to fulfil a tipsy confession Sam made about her desire to be spanked, and which will test the limits of her patience.

Author bio: Tilly Hunter is a British writer and editor with a wicked imagination and a fondness for quirky stories that usually involve rope. Her work has been published by Xcite Books, House of Erotica, Storm Moon Press, Ryan Field Press and MLR Press. She blogs at tillyhuntererotica.blogspot.co.uk and offers editing services to authors at www.tillyhunter.co.uk. When she isn’t writing, she can often be found halfway up a mountain, or curled up by her imaginary fireside with some knitting and a slice of cake.

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You can read Tilly's story, mine ("Filled With Christmas Spirit"), and many others in Winter Warmers, which is available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, All Romance, and many other e-book distributors. It's also available in paperback!

Through the Storm

My story, "Sinkhole," will appear in Coming Together: Through the Storm, a collection of weather-themed erotica that will benefit Mercy Corps, an organization that provides aid during natural disasters (and at other times as well).

It's about a woman who brings her girlfriend home to meet her conservative mother. The trip isn't going well until a muddy encounter during a sudden rainstorm forces the two lovers to stop trying to look perfect.

The anthology will be out around the end of the month. You could keep tabs on it here if you wanted to.

Tamsin Flowers on The Christmas Tattoo

Hi,
I'm back again for my second visit to Annabeth's this month and this time I've brought something much more in keeping with the season. The bells are jingling, the snow is falling (in my imagination at least) and I've got a scene for you from my current release, The Christmas Tattoo. This is a sweet love story with a spicy sprinkling of just the sort of naughtiness you need when you're curled up in front of a roaring fire with a glass of mulled wine and a mince pie.

In the excerpt below, my hero and heroine, Bradie and Colt, are just getting down and dirty together for the very first time. They once dated, innocently, in high school—while more recently a steamy kiss was interrupted by the arrival of Colt's business partner. But now, these two know what they want and nothing's going to stop them - possibly the most exciting moment at the start of any new relationship…
I hope you enjoy reading it and I'm wishing you all the happiest and most romantic of holidays.

Tamsin

Xxx

The Christmas Tattoo - blurb

When sexy red-head Bradie Clements comes home from Washington to nurse a broken heart and build bridges with her estranged father, she’s certainly not on the lookout for romance. After catching her boyfriend Kris in bed with her best friend and boss, all she wants to do is run and hide. But a chance encounter with local tattoo artist Colton Bassett leads to an unexpected appointment with his needle. Even though it’s cold outside, the temperature rises to boiling point as the two discover an irresistible attraction. But then Kris arrives on the scene to claim her back in time for his family Christmas and Bradie starts to remember what she saw in him. Tormented by jealousy and suspicion over Colton’s pregnant business partner, Bradie starts to wonder if her new romance is over before it’s begun...

Buy links

Available at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Kobo, and Xcite Books

Excerpt
He pulled her into his arms and then his mouth found hers with an urgent kiss. He needed this as much as she did, and the thought made Bradie want him even more. Desire flared up through her body as his tongue parted her lips and found its way into her mouth as they staggered back against the plan chest. With her hands, Bradie could feel his heart pounding under the thin cotton of his t-shirt; she wanted to rip it off and feel the heat of his skin as well.

Somehow, without breaking the kiss, Colt led her to his bedroom, his hands sliding across her back in a way that made her suddenly breathless. He sat her on the edge of his unmade double bed and knelt in front of her.

“This is weird, Bradie, but it’s like we’re somehow picking up where we left off all those years ago.”

Bradie nodded. Her eyes were drawn to his lips; red and bee-stung from kissing and she wanted to taste them some more.

“Not weird,” she said. “Good.”

“I need to see you naked,” said Colt.

The longing in his voice and his eyes was palpable, and it was matched by the insistent thrumming of her own pulse and the heat building on her skin.

Again she nodded and Colt’s hands gently lifted the bottom edge of her sweater. She raised her arms above her head to allow him to peel it off and was instantly rewarded with his sharp intake of breath. She’d had no reason to put on her prettiest lace bra that morning, but she did and now it was definitely having the desired effect. Sweater tossed aside and Colt’s hands went straight to her breasts. His eyes were wide as he ever so gently pushed the lace aside to liberate them and then, with a soft groan, his mouth came forward to claim one. Bradie’s insides flipped and she sank back on her elbows on the bed, spreading her legs wide so Colt could lean in forwards against her. Her nipples pebbled, one under the hot rasping pressure of Colt’s tongue, one caught in the cool grasp of his finger and thumb. Her hands raked through his hair and she felt primed to take what Colt could give her, what she desperately needed from him.

Colt’s teeth suddenly nipped her other nipple, making her gasp, and then she felt his hands at the top of her jeans.

“Are you sure you want this?” he whispered. “Because if we go any further, I won’t be able to stop.”

His voice cracked a little and Bradie sat up to bring her mouth to his. As she kissed him she spoke through it.

“More than anything, Colt. I want you more than anything.”

His hands came to the side of her face and he deepened the kiss, plundering her mouth with his tongue, pushing it as far back as he could, exploring her teeth and twisting it against her own tongue. Bradie pulled up his t-shirt and laid her hands on his chest. His nipples hardened under her touch and then she let her hands slide down the ridges of his firm abs.

“Now, Colt,” she urged. “Don’t make me wait.”

In a desperate scrabble, Colt’s t-shirt and jeans, and her own jeans, panties, boots and socks were all cast aside. At last they were naked and as Bradie lay back on the bed, Colt swooped down on top of her. Feeling the warmth of his skin along the whole length of her body gave her an electric shock and in the half-light bleeding through the door from the living room, she could make out the dark shadows of his tattoos. She couldn’t ever remember being this turned on or needy with Kris but she pushed the thought from her mind and started to kiss the base of Colt’s neck.

His hands slid up and down her body, cupping her breasts and stroking the soft curve of her stomach. As they brushed the narrow strip of hair leading down between her legs, she let her teeth find purchase on Colt’s shoulder. He grunted and pulled her tight against him; she felt for the first time the firm pressure of his erection against her thigh.

Tamsin Flowers



Tamsin Flowers loves to write light-hearted erotica, often with a twist in the tail/tale and a sense of fun. In the words of one reviewer, 'Ms Flowers has a way of describing sexual tension that forces itself upon your own body.' Her stories have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies and she is now graduating to novellas, for publishers including Cleis Press, Xcite Books, Secret Cravings and Totally Bound. This year, she entered NaNoWriMo, with the intention of penning her magnum opus in the very near future. In the meantime, like most erotica writers, she finds herself working on at least ten stories at once: while she figures out whose leg belongs in which story, you can find out more about her at Tamsin's Superotica or Tamsin Flowers.

Winter Warmers: The Day Before the Christmas Devil Comes

I asked my fellow Winter Warmers author Angela R Sargenti to play a game related to her story in the anthology, "The Christmas Devil," and she kindly obliged.

I once heard it said that a story is about a very important moment in a character's life, a time when something changes. I think sometimes about what happens before that moment comes. I asked Angie to tell me about what her character's life was like the day before the events of "The Christmas Devil," and she surpassed my expectations by writing me a short diary entry from her main character. Here it is:

My name is Katrina, and I am mistress of this grand old house. My parents died and left it to me two years ago, along with a pile of money.

These days, money is power, even for a woman, and I used my power to behave as a man does.

I’d heard of Krampus, sure. He is a common fixture where I live, and appears on the eve of St. Nicholas Day to take all the naughty little children to hell, or beat them and give them rocks instead of gifts. It’s a children’s tale, meant to frighten them into being good all year, lest St. Nicholas take them off his good list and place them on Krampus’s naughty list.

That’s all it is.

Or so I thought, until he also came to me.

Why, on December 4th, I had no idea of the monster’s true existence and was making plans to steal away and visit one of my several lovers. I never knew the danger to my backside from Krampus’s fearsome birch switch.

But I know it now, and believe me, I shall endeavor to keep myself on the straight and narrow from here on out. Next St. Nicholas day I shall be rejoicing instead of facing that infernal creature.

- Katrina Bell

"The Christmas Devil" is the story of a naughty young lady who is given the choice between going to hell or submitting to the birch.

Bio:

Angela’s currently hard at work on her latest novel, and she has penned dozens of erotica stories for sites such as Leo DeGraunce, For The Girls, and Oysters & Chocolate, among others. Her work appears in Best Bondage Erotica 2012 (under her pen name, AR Shannon), The House of Erotica Summer Scorchers Collection, and more recently the anthology, Baby Got Back: Anal Erotica. Yet more stories are to appear in upcoming anthologies, and an erotic fairy tale, “Lord Sir Beast,” is to be released in the very near future. She has served as guest editor for the August 2012 issue of Leo DeGraunce and she has four e-books of her own, Working Out the Kinks, Start Me Up: A Collection of Erotic Love Stories, So Spankable! and Brattitudes. For more information, please check out her links:

http://www.angiesargenti.blogspot.com

http://www.amazon.com/author/angelasargenti

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Angela-R-Sargenti-Author/

http://www.pinterest.com/angiesargenti/

@angiesargenti on Twitter

#ShortAttentionSpanErotica

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(Incidentally, if you would like to amaze yourself, look up Krampus on Google images or a similar service. I once came across an unbelievable collection of images at a museum in Fall River, Massachusetts—surprising, disturbing, and arousing illustrations. I was so pleased when I saw that Angie had written about him because I knew someone needed to do it.)

You can read Angie's story, mine ("Filled With Christmas Spirit"), and many others in Winter Warmers, which is available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, All Romance, and many other e-book distributors. It's also available in paperback!