$2.99 Kindle erotica ebook sale on Fast Girls and Crossdressing

I love when my books go on sale, especially a book like Crossdressing: Erotic Stories that I am very proud of and I think says a lot about queer identities (and even straight ones that don't conform to our culture's ideas about what heterosexuality should look like) but are out of print (publishing powers that be, I'd love it to come back in print after all these years!). For now, though, it's only $2.99 on Kindle through October 31, as is Fast Girls: Erotica for Women on Kindle. Both are ones I highly recommend. More info below on each. And both Crossdressing and Fast Girls are available as Audible audiobooks, both narrated by Lucy Malone!


Fast Girls: Erotica for Women (click here to watch me naked in a bubble bath in the book trailer)

Official blurb, table of contents and introduction:

Fast girls don’t mind being the girl everyone is talking about, as long as all eyes are focused their way. They are wanton, daring, shameless, and bold. Fast Girls celebrates the girl with a reputation, the girl who goes all the way, and the girl who doesn't know how to say "no." Featuring writing by Tristan Taormino, Kayla Perrin, Donna George Storey, D. L. King, Kristina Wright, Saskia Walker, Jacqueline Applebee, Tess Danesi, and others, Fast Girls is a racy, provocative collection of erotica by the cream of the crop of female erotica writers. They take readers on unexpected journeys, from a bedroom with every toy imaginable to a sex club, a communal shower, on set with a personal porn star, and more. These characters revel in their sexual excesses, boldly doing what others only dream about. Race through Fast Girls once, and you will come back again and again.

Table of contents:

Introduction: Fast Is a (Sexy) State of Mind

Temptation Kayla Perrin
Waxing Eloquent Donna George Storey
Five-Minute Porn Star Jacqueline Applebee
Winter, Summer Tristan Taormino
Playing the Market Angela Caperton
Panther Suzanne V. Slate
Communal Saskia Walker
Fireworks Lolita Lopez
Flash! Andrea Dale
Waiting for Beethoven Susie Hara
Confessions of a Kinky Shopaholic Jennifer Peters
Let’s Dance D. L. King
That Girl Cherry Bomb
Oz Isabelle Gray
Married Life Charlotte Stein
Princess Elizabeth Coldwell
Chasing Danger Kristina Wright
Whore Complex Rachel Kramer Bussel
Lessons, Slow and Painful Tess Danesi
Speed Bumps Tenille Brown

Introduction: Fast Is a (Sexy) State of Mind

I like the fast girls best/they do whatever they wanna do.—Sarge, “Fast Girls”

I named this book after a song called “Fast Girls” by an indie pop/rock band called Sarge*. That song is a feisty, punk-rock ode to a hot girl who is captivating in all kinds of ways.

I’m sure you know a girl like that. Or a woman. Or a lady. Or a butch. Or a femme. Or…you get the idea. She’s the kind of babe who takes no prisoners, who owns her life and her sexuality and not only doesn’t apologize for them, makes sure you notice her and what she’s all about.

Two definitions of “fast,” according to Merriam-Webster are “wild” or “sexually promiscuous,” and while that is the seed of what I was angling for here, I didn’t just want to read about slut after slut after slut. I wanted to read about women who in some way defy the conventional norms-whatever those are in this day and age. That doesn’t mean being shocking for shock’s sake, but following their passion, seeking out what it is that they need to be truly pleasured.

What I love about these fast girls is that even as they are bold, daring and dynamic, they have a thing or two to learn about sex and themselves.

Consider Susie Hara’s fifty-one-year-old protagonist in “Waiting for Beethoven” as she gets it on with a younger man. In current pop culture terms, she’s the cougar, the aggressive older woman seeking her sexy prey. But she is actually nervous and uncertain, as well as aroused. “And now there was no point in telling him she wasn’t going to come when she could already feel a wave of pleasure rolling inside her, kind of a pre-coming feeling, but different than usual; she couldn’t really tell what was her clit and what were the walls inside her and what was contracting and what was releasing and then she realized she must be coming because her body had taken over and been taken over in this luscious finger symphony so she just gave in,” writes Hara, in a description of female orgasm that I think will be familiar to many.

In this book, fast is as much a state of mind as a state of motion. It’s not about trying to slut it up to impress anyone, but about finding what works for you. I was intrigued to find that playing with prostitution, or whoring, came up as a theme in many submissions, as did threesomes with one woman and two men. It makes sense that fast would be associated with women who mix cash and sex, as happens in Angela Caperton’s “Playing the Market,” where the new economy mixes with the world’s oldest profession. In my “Whore Complex,” whoredom is more a state of mind, a go-to fantasy that leaps from the bounds of dirty talk to real life with some unusual consequences. There’s also exhibitionism, such as in Jacqueline Applebee’s “Five-Minute Porn Star,” and submission–there’s a lot of very hot female submission and BDSM play in this book.

These girls are fast when they want to be…and slow at other times. They want to crack their lovers’ secret codes, find out what makes them tick, as happens in Charlotte Stein’s “Married Life.” I like this story because the wife is not just passively accepting her humdrum sex life, but she doesn’t want to have an affair or get a divorce. She wants her husband, the man she loves, but she wants him openly, honestly, freely and when they both give a little of themselves and bravely bare their souls, they find true happiness.

These girls don’t give it up for just anyone. Even the ones who get around have a reason for choosing their lovers, and it’s those reasons, those images, that resonate with me. Here’s Tristan Taormino in “Winter, Summer,” rhapsodizing about the woman she’s about to seduce (or perhaps, who’s about to seduce her is more accurate):

She’s the boy I have dreamed about and jerked off to too many times to count. The one who won’t leave my fantasies, who cruises me in my bedroom, who seduced me months ago in another lifetime with her voice, who plays pool and drinks beer, who grabs my ass in crowded bars just to fuck with my boundaries and catch me off guard, who makes my brain get wet and my pussy explode.

Exactly. Though there are women on the prowl here, women who go after younger men, women who pounce, women who pursue, there are others who are excited about being the object of another’s affection, lust and desire. For them, being fast means courting the man or woman (or more than one person) they are searching for.

These fast girls speak to me on many levels. I admire them, respect them, marvel at them, raise my eyebrows at them, want them. But most of all, I’m excited that they’ve broken free of whatever messages we all receive about how a woman is “supposed” to act and instead they are bent on acting however they damn well please. And that’s my personal definition of a fast, not to mention foxy, girl.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City


Crossdressing: Erotic Stories

Official description:

>From femmes who channel Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to men who love nothing more than the feel silky panties stretched tight against their skin, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl — or a guy — for a night. Drag queens get dolled up for a night on the town, a dyke packs a special surprise beneath her dress, and a devoted husband puts his dress-up skills to the ultimate test in this seductive new collection.

And my intro along with the table of contents

Crossing Boundaries and Bending Genders

Crossdressing spans such a wide range of possibilities, erotic and otherwise, that the only thing we can safely say brings the mélange of its practitioners under one umbrella is that they dress (sometimes or all the time) in the clothing of another gender. In an age when gender is becoming increasingly fluid, deconstructed, questioned, and sometimes abandoned, we can begin to see the idea and reality of crossdressing in a new light.

This book focuses on the erotic pleasures of crossdressing, while also touching on the life-changing, mind-melting, earth-shifting experiences that can come from actively playing with one’s gender. For some characters, crossdressing means transgressing, transforming, subverting the rules to enter another body in order to enter another world, literally or figuratively. Sometimes it gives them permission to go where they’d be unwanted otherwise. For other characters, playing with their attire lets their minds create the fantasy creature they’ve always longed to be. It means acting, homecoming, freedom. Sometimes, it’s a fun, risqué adventure, a break from the ordinary, a chance to see what might happen if you slipped into a dress or suited up. Would you be the same person? Would you feel the same? Would you get turned on in the same way? These questions and more get tackled in Crossdressing, though the answers are as varied as we are.

When these characters don the clothes of another gender, or another gender role, they find not just their bodies but their minds altered in powerful ways. What was once forbidden is now acceptable⎯or maybe it’s still taboo but even hotter because of it. When they literally step into someone else’s shoes, their bodies, minds, and libidos can explore passions they might not dare voice otherwise. Whether it’s the bra, panties, and garter tucked away under the charcoal-gray business suit or the bound breasts flattened under a drag king’s snazzy attire, clothes, as more than one character here can attest, do “make the man”⎯or woman, though the person inside those clothes creates his or her power from within as well.

In Stephen Albrow’s “More Than Meets the Eye,” his businessman protagonist has a secret under his suit that’s his private treasure, until he chooses to share it: “My Brooks Brothers shirt is thick enough to cover up my white satin bra and garter belt, but not so thick that I can’t feel the garter belt’s lace trim as I run my fingertip over my abs. Just knowing this little bit of Suzy is there is enough to calm my nerves.” Part of his narrator’s delight is in fooling those around him. Yet revealing Suzy to her special lover is a bold thrill that yields untold rewards, and it’s this push-pull of discovery and secrecy, of flaunting and hiding, of male and female that makes the story come alive.

These stories are not just about crossing genders but about living with the duality of one within the other, mixed together, mingling—the experience of living as one changing how a person lives as the other. Ashley Laine, the sensual, seductive drag queen narrator of Tulsa Brown’s exquisitely rendered “Temporary,” reveals the fear that haunts her at being found out: “When his thick fingers began to creep under my panties, I edged away, afraid to ripple the surface of his fantasy.” Yet she proceeds, risking rejection for the joy of bringing that duality together into her erotic life. You can feel the shivers Rory delivers to her with the words “Oh, girl”—two simple but powerful words that encapsulate the crux of both Brown’s story and this collection as a whole. When these characters⎯men, women, and those in between or neither at all⎯are finally able to be recognized for their chosen selves, the thrill goes far beyond the sexual.

Yet sex, desire, lust, and longing are front and center throughout, even as more complex gender dynamics come into play. In Debra Hyde’s “Just Like a Boy,” we learn that simply turning oneself into a “boy” is not enough for her narrator. She longs to be the boy of her childhood dreams, not “an androgyne in boy’s clothes.” Yet her venture into male territory isn’t only for her but for her lover, Matthias, as well. Hyde draws out the tension in this dominant/submissive relationship, where power gets exerted in twisted, yet intriguing, ways.

The power of uniform gets invoked in Lisabet Sarai’s humorous “Beefeater,” in which a young British woman mocks family⎯and tradition⎯to dress in the garb of the Yeoman Warders guarding the Tower of London. The secrecy of her mission, combined with the defiant naughtiness of their endeavor, had me rooting for them with all the fervor of anyone who’s deliberately disobeyed, half-hoping to get punished.

Crossdressers themselves aren’t the only ones here with a tale to tell. In T. Hitman’s “Higher and Higher,” Pete pretends to be his naughty alter ego, Nate, when he hires Roni, a “dudette” who shows Pete a few tricks as she turns one, worshipping him in ways nobody else ever has. His internal dilemma, caught between sheer arousal and propriety, between who he thinks he should desire and who he actually does, gives us a peek into how those who lust after crossdressers of any variety also struggle to embrace their wants.

In Crossdressing, you’ll find men in panties, butches in dresses, girls looking like boys, drag queens, drag kings, and those who can’t be tidily summed up by their outer appearance. You’ll find men who want to be men, only prettier, and women who don’t have penis envy per se, but don’t always want to be the little lady. In short, you’ll find people across the sexual-orientation spectrum fucking with gender and gender roles⎯and simply fucking.

At one point, looking at herself in the mirror, Brown’s drag queen says, “Some people might call this a fantasy, but it was my deepest truth.” Here you get hot fantasy, fiction, and the kind of truth that really matters, the kind that gets under our skin, under our clothes, under our disguises to a place that speaks to us deep in our erotic souls. Whatever you’re wearing right now (or not), I hope you’ll join me on this tour across stages real and imagined, where the limits of gender-bending are in the eyes of the beholder.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
April 2007

Foreword by Veronica Vera
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Temporary • Tulsa Brown
Just Like a Boy • Debra Hyde
Halloween • Helen Boyd
More Than Meets the Eye • Stephen Albrow
Tough Enough to Wear a Dress • Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer • Simon Sheppard
Tori’s Secret • Andrea Miller
Like a Girl • Alison Tyler
Michelle, Ma Belle • Marcy Sheiner
Beefeater • Lisabet Sarai
Phone Fatale • Stan Kent
I Need a Man • Andrea Dale
A Cute Idea • Rachel Kramer Bussel
Higher and Higher • T. Hitman
Birthday Girl • Jason Rubis
The Princess on the Rock • Elspeth Potter
Down the Basement • Ryan Field
Some Things Never Change • Melinda Johnson

Audiobook version of Crossdressing: Erotic Stories now available from Audible!

Very excited that my anthology Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, with a foreword by Veronica Vera, is now available as an audiobook from Audible, read by Lucy Malone and Sean Crisden - click here for a free sample listen! It's also available as an ebook for Kindle or Nook and I am extremely remiss in my search for a new cover photo to get it back into print but it's on my to do list! This is one of the books I'm most proud of and one I think goes beyond erotica to at least a hint of social commentary and it would make me very happy to see it back in print, but I hope the audiobook will reach some new readers too. Click here to see all my other audiobooks.



Table of Contents

Foreword by Veronica Vera
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Temporary by Tulsa Brown
Just Like a Boy by Debra Hyde
Halloween by Helen Boyd
More Than Meets the Eye by Stephen Albrow
Tough Enough to Wear a Dress by Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer by Simon Sheppard
Tori’s Secret by Andrea Miller
Like a Girl by Alison Tyler
Michelle, Ma Belle by Marcy Sheiner
Beefeater by Lisabet Sarai
Phone Fatale by Stan Kent
I Need a Man by Andrea Dale
A Cute Idea by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Higher and Higher by T. Hitman
Birthday Girl by Jason Rubis
The Princess on the Rock by Elspeth Potter
Down the Basement by Ryan Field
Some Things Never Change by Melinda Johnson


From femmes who channel Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to men who love nothing more than the feel silky panties stretched tight against their skin, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl — or a guy — for a night. Drag queens get dolled up for a night on the town, a dyke packs a special surprise beneath her dress, and a devoted husband puts his dress-up skills to the ultimate test in this seductive new collection.

“Crossdressing presents a catalogue of kinky fiction from some of the industry’s most respected names. Each author has tackled the subject with an eye for the unusual, a sense for what works, and a finger on the pulse of what is erotic. But, beneath the fiction, there is a message that shows we can all enjoy a range of erotic stories, regardless of whether the characters are dressed as men or women and regardless of whether they want to be a perfect woman, or whether they want to simply take it like a man.”
—Erotica Readers and Writers Association (lick through to read entire review)

“The stories about men who dress in feminine frills range from light and sunny (Rachel Kramer Bussel’s A Cute Idea, in which a young man agrees to wear his girlfriend’s silky underwear) to poignant (Higher and Higher by T. Hitman, in which a frustrated man in a dead-end job and similar marriage finds the “dudette” of his dreams) to tragic (The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer by Simon Sheppard, in which a crossdressing young gay man is sexually used by a succession of men who regard him as a joke).

The theme of sneaking into forbidden places wearing “inappropriate” garb continues in stories about men, since “women’s” clothing is generally more taboo for men than vice versa. In More Than Meets the Eye by Stephen Albrow, a businessman loves wearing women’s lingerie under a suit. After defeating his corporate rival in a ruthless takeover bid, the character shows his alter ego, “Suzy,” by taking off his masculine business armor in the men’s lavatory, where the rival is allowed to “win” sexually.” —Erotica Revealed (click through and scroll down to read entire review)

“The perverts in Crossdressing bring fascinating sexual fluidity to their kink.”
-Books to Watch Out For

“With a good-natured, light-hearted approach and plenty of steamy erotic action, Crossdressing celebrates the sexual thrill of gender play while having plenty of erotic fun.” -Eros Zine

Gay editorial pride

Tulsa Brown's story "Temporary," which opens my book Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, will deservedly be published in Best Gay Erotica 2009. I'm thrilled, and so proud of that book and its authors. It's a little odd to be "competing" for spots in an anthology with people I've published, but they are two different roles, author and editor. Someday, along with signing at BEA, I want to make it into Best Gay Erotica. And I will, if I'm patient. I try to pick either the hottest and/or the most gripping story to put first in my collections, and "Temporary" is one that gives me chills. I hope it does for other readers as well. I don't know if there's a market for it, but I'd be thrilled to do a sequel to Crossdressing because there's just so much potential there.

Upcoming events: Book parties, erotica panel, cupcake blog anniversary, and In The Flesh!

I have a bunch of events, which you can find out more about on my website or just see the RSS calendar on the left-hand side here. I promise much fun at the parties and will try to pack as much info into our just-under-an-hour December 1st seminar as possible.



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29
6PM Crossdressing book party

6PM Reception, 7PM Program, $10. With Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel & authors Helen Boyd & Veronica Vera, pictured below



"Explore the erotic thrill of crossing the gender divide and mixing things up in these sultry stories about slipping into something more comfortable. From a femme who channels Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to a high-powered male executive whose tearoom trick is thrilled by his lingerie, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl . . . or a guy . . . for a night," according to Crossdressing. Rachel Kramer Bussel is senior editor at Penthouse Variations, host of the In The Flesh Erotic Reading Series, and wrote the popular "Lusty Lady" column for The Village Voice. Helen Boyd is the author of My Husband Betty, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary award, and the follow-up memoir, She's Not the Man I Married. Veronica Vera (MissVera.com) is the author of Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls: Tips, Tales and Teachings from the Dean of the World's First Crossdressing Academy and Miss Vera's Crossdress for Success: A Resource Guide for Boys Who Want to Be Girls. Miss Vera's Academy is in New York City.

December 1, noon
Erotica panel at 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair
[12:00pm - 12:50pm] In the Flesh: Writing and Publishing Erotica moderated by Rachel Kramer Bussel
With Polly Frost (Deep Inside), Tsaurah Litzky (Erotica Professor, The New School), and Sofia Quintero (Divas Don't Yield, Contributor, Iridescence and Dirty Girls).

The New York Center for Indpendent Publishing is located in the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen Landmark Building at 20 West 44th Street (bet. 5th and 6th Aves) in midtown Manhattan.

December 6, 6 pm - 9 pm
Cupcakes Take the Cake Third Anniversary Party!

RSVP here (and sign up for our monthly Meetup!)

The number #1 blog about cupcakes is celebrating three years of "All Cupcakes, All The Time" with a sweet bash. It's not a costume party, but we encourage you to put on a little frosting because the best cupcake-inspired outfit will win a prize.
There will also be a raffle and CUPCAKES!

Sponsors include: Crumbs, Carolyn's Kitchen, Kumquat Cupcakery and Sugar Sweet Sunshine.

December 14, 7 pm - 8:45 pm
Sex and Candy: 22 Succulent Stories party - Books will be here by then, probably early December, I'll post when they're available for sale, on Amazon or from me. Free cupcakes at party from Kumquat Cupcakery, who makes the perfect size minis right in Williamsburg. Super yum! So yeah, excerpts and details when I actually have the book in my hands; for now, my publisher has a MySpace site and a blog dedicated to sex and candy.



December 20

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20th at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

Celebrate the sexy holiday spirit with erotic writing from Judy McGuire (How Not to Date), Abiola Abrams (Dare), M. David Hornbuckle (The Salvation of Billy Wayne Carter), Marcelle Manhattan (Sexegesis), and Molly X reading erotic haiku. Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2008, He’s on Top, She’s on Top). Door prizes include copies of Alison Tyler’s Naughty or Nice: Christmas Erotica Stories. Free candy canes and cupcakes will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne PortnoySofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan - from my Crossdressing blog

I've decided to start dedicated blogs for some of my new books, in part to promote them, in part because I've found there's an ease and focus to a niche blog, like Cupcakes Take the Cake, that I just don't have with this sometimes unwieldy one, not to mention I'm still recovering from being sick and my brain is fog and I have insanely massive deadlines coming up. One big one and multiple tiny ones. This past week I've really been moving quite slowly, miscounting, forgetting, just like there's a thick fog over my brain that can't seem to clear. My body's rebelling against me, giving me acne and then yesterday making me puke up my tea. I'm not sure what's going on and have slept way more than enough; now it's time to get a move on and fight this annoying cold-like thing, and get back to what I'm meant to be doing.

So yeah, 32's been a bit hectic for me, though not all bad. Lots of good conversations with my friends, some lovely dinners at places like Babbo and Lunetta (Smith Street), and I even managed to do 1 squat at 185 pounds last week at CrossFit (I was trying singles for the first time). But it does mean this blog and my inbox are not necessarily getting the attention they deserve for a bit. This also means I may not be replying to email until December, unless it's urgent. So this is a timely post below (I'm Not There opens Wednesday), and you can keep checking it out at http://crossdresingerotica.wordpress.com for more updates.

Via Ain't It Cool News, a clip from Todd Haynes's forthcoming biopic of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There, with Cate Blanchett playing Dylan, which opens Wednesday:


Rolling Stone says:

Not content with just one actor to portray Dylan in the act of inventing and reinventing himself, Haynes hired six and hit the jackpot with Cate Blanchett. She burns through Haynes' head-trip odyssey like an illuminating torch. Blanchett's soon-to-be-legendary performance is not a stunt, it's some kind of miracle. Playing the skinny, androgynous Dylan in his electric years — when his hair stood on end to match his fried nerves — Blanchett extends the possibilities of acting. You won't see a better example of interpretive art this year by man or woman.

My new BFF, and some Crossdressing reviews

This red pen is my new BFF. Seriously. I have been on crazed writing and editing/proofreading duty and there is still way more to do. It's amazing how you can read a piece 2, 3, 4 times and still find errors. It's a happy day when I can hit "send" and turn that duty over to someone else. The good things is...books! Out next year, lots of them.

The interview with Tristan was almost two hours of awesome, all about anal sex, gonzo porn, reality porn, educational porn, cunnilingus, open relationships, Dark Odyssey, fucked up sexual standards, and more. Only bad part was afterwards this guy says to us, "Just out of curiousity, why'd you pick this place to do the interview?" I wanted to say something witty and rude, but I told him the truth: "Because Think Coffee was too crowded." Then he tried to blabber about some reality show that showed he'd been listening to our whole conversation. Whatever. It's a public cafe. Also, NYU student Joey was filming Tristan and the interview for a documentary he's working on. If there's a public screening, I'll post details here.






Speaking of books, Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, for which we're having a book release party in NYC at the LGBT Center on November 29th, just got 2 great reviews. The first is at Erotica Revealed:

In the daring Beefeater, by Lisabet Sarai, a heterosexual English girl fulfills her lifelong desire to wear the historic uniform of her uncle, a Yeoman of the Guard, by promising to give her cousin Phil the sex he wants in exchange for his help. The invasion of Uncle Geoff's closet for several illicit purposes excites both young lovers to fever pitch.

The stories about men who dress in feminine frills range from light and sunny (Rachel Kramer Bussel's A Cute Idea, in which a young man agrees to wear his girlfriend's silky underwear) to poignant (Higher and Higher by T. Hitman, in which a frustrated man in a dead-end job and similar marriage finds the "dudette" of his dreams) to tragic (The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer by Simon Sheppard, in which a crossdressing young gay man is sexually used by a succession of men who regard him as a joke).

The theme of sneaking into forbidden places wearing "inappropriate" garb continues in stories about men, since "women's" clothing is generally more taboo for men than vice versa. In More Than Meets the Eye by Stephen Albrow, a businessman loves wearing women's lingerie under a suit. After defeating his corporate rival in a ruthless takeover bid, the character shows his alter ego, "Suzy," by taking off his masculine business armor in the men's lavatory, where the rival is allowed to "win" sexually.

Also at Erotica Revealed, Lisabet Sarai reviews Alison Tyler's bondage anthology Love at First Sting and praises my story:

Silence is Golden is perhaps the best story I've ever read by the prolific Rachel Kramer Bussel. When she is bound and gagged, a talkative woman learns to really pay attention:

"The silence rang in my ears as I came, the absence of sound coaxing me over the edge as saliva pooled in my mouth, my burning wrists took the imprints of the rope, and I reveled in his fast, hard, hammering thrusts. When we were done, there was no need to speak."

At the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, Ashley Lister had this to say:

The innovative tales of cross-dressing and role subversion in these stories are what makes this anthology such a positive delight. The eclectic content of these stories is perfectly balanced and, whether you're randomly dipping in and out of the stories, or going through them chronologically, each author's distinctive take on the subject matter presents a different, fun and insightful tale on the theme of cross-dressing.

After a thoughtful foreword by Veronica Vera, and an erudite introduction by the inimitable Ms Bussel, the anthology begins properly with Tulsa Brown's Temporary. Temporary is the story of a drag queen and a dishwasher. Powerfully told, as Tulsa Brown's fiction is always powerfully told, Temporary is a story that smudges the thin black line between straight and gay and reminds the reader that arousal can seldom be pigeonholed or compartmentalised.

And then we're into Debra Hyde (metaphorically, obviously – let's not be rude here, not while I'm wearing a frock) with Just Like a Boy. Like Tulsa Brown, like all the authors in this anthology, Debra Hyde is an accomplished writer who knows how to make a narrative develop. Debra writes sex that is sultry, steamy and singularly exciting, and Just Like a Boy explores the phenomena of a woman dressing like a man (well, a boy) with a passionately arousing tale.

And, once again, that blurry line that is drawn between the clearly defined categories of straight and gay becomes even more smudged.

By the time the reader is enjoying Helen Boyd's excellent Halloween, a tale of a cross dressing couple attending a party as a foursome, the line has become so blurry that it's easy to forget what that line was delineating in the first instance.

Speaking of crossdressing, yes, post-Oscar de la Hoya, it's in the news again:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, admitted to having sex with a man he met at an adult video store in Spokane last week, according to a police report released Tuesday afternoon.

The police report offers a far different version of events from the brief account Curtis gave Monday to The Columbian, one that seems likely to threaten Curtis' political future.

The report is filled with graphic details of an encounter that began at a porn store on a Spokane Valley strip and concluded miles away in Curtis' room at the city's poshest hotel.

The police report contains an account of how Curtis allegedly donned women's clothing, red stockings and a black sequined lingerie top before engaging in a sex act at the store. He then continued to wear them throughout the night under his clothing, the report says.

Great Crossdressing review

From Richard Labonte in Book Marks comes this first review of my book Crossdressing (which they now have at Modern Times Bookstore, along with a lot of other kickass books. Last night at the crazily packed Litcrawl reading, we not only heard amazing readers, but I bought Rachel Cusk's A Life's Work, her motherhood memoir, and Heidi bought Alie Liebegott's The IHOP Papers, which I'm so reading next.



Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Cleis
Press, 216 pages, $14.95 paper.

Bears and daddies and trannies, fratboys and first timers and country
boys, cowboys and truckers and hot cops, butches and femmes and bi's:
is there anything new when it comes to queer erotica? This collection
of fiction about fishnet stockings, silk panties, and strapon dildos
is raunchy proof that the answer is a titillating and insightful yes.
Most queer erotica is about either girls or boys - sex and gender
don't mix. But Bussel's book breaks down that barrier with panache.
From the woman who gets off on donning a British Beefeater's uniform,
to the man whose Brooks Brother shirt covers a white satin bra, to the
fratboy (yes, the genres do overlap) who thrills that his female drag
turns on the straight boys - the perverts in Crossdressing_ bring
fascinating sexual fluidity to their kink. And, as one character in
Tulsa's Brown's deeply emotional "Temporary" says, it's about more
than fantasy: for the drag queen in her story, crossdressing "was my
deepest truth" – wise words from a porn collection.

Excerpts from Crossdressing

Inspred by Marcy Sheiner's posting of a part of her story "Michelle, Ma Belle," from Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, here's a bit of hers and some of the others. Thanks to Charlie Anders, author of The Lacy Crossdresser and host of Writers With Drinks, for telling me about Marcy's story in the first place! We'll have some reviews and interviews soon as well. I'm really proud of both the diversity and hotness in this book, and don't think either should be lacking at the expense of the other.

"Michelle, Ma Belle"
by Marcy Sheiner

Many years ago, before I knew what a transvestite was–I had a vague notion it had something to do with a sex change–and before I’d explored the far reaches of genderbending, I inadvertently stumbled into a relationship with a cross-dressing man.

Michael and I had been going out for several months, and had become fairly open about our sexual fantasies. But it took nearly a year before he revealed his biggest secret–the contents of his bottom dresser drawer. He was terrified of being ridiculed, but my reaction was mostly jealousy: I fairly drooled over his collection of expensive camisoles, garter belts, pushup bras and lacy stockings. Relieved, he told me that for years he’d been dressing up in secret, sometimes calling a phone sex service to describe his outfits, asking the operator to treat him like a woman.

This was fascinating stuff to me. Since I’m bisexual, the notion of my man dressed as a woman excited me. But it turned out that, though Michael had all the right accoutrements of femininity, he was a total klutz when it came to hair and makeup. He wanted me to teach him how to look ultra-femme...

Read more on Marcy's blog, Dirty Laundry

“Temporary”
by Tulsa Brown

Rory opened his eyes. For a second he just stared, eyes darting from my face to my breasts to the erection I still tugged between my legs.

“Oh, girl,” he breathed. “You’re so fine.”

Oh, girl. The words ran through me in an electric current. I squeezed myself, my cockhead surging in a sweet throb on top of my delicate fist. Rory unzipped, clumsy with want, fumbled with his shirt and sent a button sailing. It rolled in a spiral on the ugly burgundy carpet. Then he gathered me up and swept me down to that carpet, too.

He was vast, dark, undulating, a powerful wave of a man. I was the red sunset dancing on his surface. On the club floor between the tables, I lapped at his chest and sucked hard on his nipples, feeling his low, hungry sounds vibrate against my lips. He touched me with a rough, working man’s awe, as if he were afraid he might break something.

“It’s my real hair,” I said. “You can pull on it.”

Emboldened, he wrapped the silky length around his fist, tight enough to make my scalp burn. But it wasn’t pain--as soon as he stepped into a wide-legged stance in front of my mouth.

“Just Like a Boy”
by Debra Hyde

The doorbell sounded and I met Matthias at the door, bringing my confusion with me. When he saw me, a “this is perfect” smile washed across his face. He was pleased with what he saw and he wasted no time in showing me. He grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and planted a rough kiss on me. He pried my teeth apart with his tongue and devoured me. His free hand went right for my crotch and grabbed what little he found there. He rubbed his hand up and down my little bulge.

I should’ve blushed at first touch, but before I could react, Matthias moaned with such lust that his response stunned me. He was getting off on the prick in my pants! I mean, I was prepared for being a faggot boy, but somehow I’d failed to realize that the man who loved cunt--my cunt--would be queer too by virtue of getting hard over my dick.

But hey, what worked for him worked for me, and I humped Matthias’s hand with my boy cock as thoughts of a rampaging ass fuck raced in my head.

Matthias pulled away from me and laughed. “Forget that, kid,” he said as he dragged me by the neck over my hall staircase. “Kneel,” he ordered. As I did, he sat on the stairs, planting himself so his crotch was mouth-level to me.

“Halloween”
by Helen Boyd

Laura and Sally were getting completely carried away, not taking any of it too seriously but things were getting a little crazy. Sally had stepped out of her jeans, let her sock fall, and stood in nothing but a pair of white boy-cut panties. She was the classic tomboy, small-breasted but blonde, pretty but athletic. And Laura of course felt like the girliest of girls now, with her cleavage heaving and high heels and the luxurious satin on her legs. Sally jokingly grabbed Laura’s ass the next time she kissed her. It was all so dumb and theatrical but the boys on the couch were actually getting turned on by it, which made the girls laugh harder and harder and act more and more outrageously. “You want a little bit of this?” Sally asked James and turned Laura around, bending her at the waist. Suddenly it wasn’t so funny to Laura, as she felt herself get incredibly wet nearly instantaneously. To have Robert look at her that way was something she desired so much, and knowing James would take the lead would maybe free Robert up to be more obvious about his desires. Besides, James still had those damned gloves on.

It was only natural for Sally to spank her nextæhow could she not?--and the heat she felt on her ass turned her on even more. She wasn’t wearing panties--she had gone without to surprise Robert at the end of the night--and instead she was surprising herself.

“More Than Meets the Eye”
by Stephen Albrow

My suit is by Giorgio Armani, but my underwear is by Victoria’s Secret. The boss wants me to play hardball today, to be at my most masculine, so I need something soft and sensuous against my skin, to keep me in touch with the real me, with Suzy. I spent two hours in the shower this morning, shaving every last trace of hair from my body, while going through the numbers in my head. The boss wants to secure the takeover deal for 2.5 million at the most, but I reckon I can snare them for 1.75, if I push hard enough. Yeah, I’ve got to be a tough guy today--at least, on the outside. Today I’ll be a tough guy in white satin bra and panties, with matching garter belt and tan-colored stockings. (Fully-fashioned, naturally!)

I blend in with the boardroom easily enough, with its ultra-masculine oak-paneled walls and high-back leather chairs. There are ten of us seated round the negotiating table, five of them and five of us. We’re all wearing matching charcoal-grey suits, cos that’s what the well-dressed man is wearing this year. Only one person in the room breaks the dull grey monotonyæthe power-dressed lady sitting directly to my right. She crosses her legs, which makes her skirt ride up and reveal several inches of stocking-clad thigh. Her stockings are the same shade of tan as mine, but hers aren’t fully-fashioned. She’s on their side and she talks quite a lot. Her and my boss make all the introductions, while I wait patiently for my moment--the moment when the number-crunching begins.

“Tough Enough to Wear a Dress”
by Teresa Noelle Roberts

Kate closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, I could tell she’d seen a vision. “Not a tuxedo, exactly,” she said. “A man’s vintage suit, but one custom-made for your body. Very Marlene Dietrich.”

What I knew about contemporary fashion could fit on a penny, with room left over for something actually interesting, like a hot woman’s phone number in very tiny type, but I know my old movies. I nodded eagerly. Marlene in a suit, looking all hot and gender-bending, was my idea of the perfect evening look.

“There’s just one condition,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “The suit’s got to make its first appearance on a date with me. It just seems a shame to waste it on a crowd that won’t fully appreciate it—or the butch wearing it.”


“The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer”
by Simon Sheppard

“That was it. I didn’t see Bret again before I left for winter break. I figured that he’d gotten himself some pussy and forgotten about me. But only a few days after I got back to campus, he came over to me, looking a little shy—which on him looked just plain strange—and said, ‘Want to go for a pizza or something? My treat.’ And so he started using me on a regular basis, in my room when Tony was gone, his room when his roommate was out. Once I even sucked him off in the men’s room at the library, but without the lingerie it wasn’t as good. Tony kept fucking my face, too, I guess when he couldn’t get otherwise laid, but it was Bret I really wanted. It wasn’t because of who he was, really, it wasn’t even his looks. It was because of, well, me. I needed him. I wanted to be pretty for him. I wanted to be pretty so someone would love me.”

He looked in my eyes with an expression so pure, so vulnerable that it made me ache. It made me want to come. It made me want to screw him.

“Finally, one night, it happened. Tony was spending the night at his latest girlfriend’s house, so I invited Bret over. He brought a fifth of Cuervo and a teddy, garters, and stockings. ‘I want you to look like a whore,’ he said, then took a big gulp from the bottle.

“‘A pretty whore,’ I told Bret, hardly believing I was saying it. ‘Your pretty whore.’

“Tori’s Secret”
by Andrea Miller

Without hesitation Jacqueline threw her arms around my neck, showing me how everything about her was deliciously soft—the crush of her breasts against mine, the tickle of her angora sweater, even the fuzzy smell of peaches on her fingers. I realized I was going to enjoy fucking her for more than just the ironic revenge of it and in the same instant she realized she was attracted to me. I could tell by of the way she instinctively touched the back of my neck then quickly stiffened.

I don’t know what it was Jacqueline liked about me—the hair, the cologne, the lean press of my bones or something else altogether. Maybe something perverse like curiosity of where her lover had been. All I know is that hug marked the beginning of months of seduction. Months of standing too close, of double entendre, of private jokes. I remember once being inches away from her in the storeroom. Hemmed in by books—yes—though mostly that close just because we wanted to be. Jacqueline had her face turned up to me and her lips parted, ready to be kissed. I leaned in like I was going to oblige her and then I quickly turned away. My mouth was watering for her, too, but I knew it was better this way. To make her wait until wanting crushed her guilt, made her reckless. And it was another month before she was that hopelessly ensnared and an opportunity arose—dished up in fact by Tori, who forgot to pick her up one night.

“Jacqueline, it’s dark and wet out there,” I said. “Let me drive you home.”


“Like a Girl”
by Alison Tyler

My breath caught. Each time Logan’s hand pumped my cock, he pressed the base of the toy back against my clit. And each time I felt that connection, I thought I would climax. He didn’t stop. He didn’t turn or say a word. He kept going, pausing only to add a bit more spit to his palm, so that I felt he was greasing me.
Caleb froze. I’m sure something flippant was on the tip of his tongue, but maybe he caught a look at Logan’s face, and that stopped him. He was able to shut the door behind him, and then he stood totally still, and I knew he was waiting for instructions.

“You’re going to come for me, boy?” Logan murmured, crooning to me, but teasing somehow. Taunting me for dressing like this in the first place. He’d told me to buy an outfit for Cal. He hadn’t told me to dress up myself.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Then come.”

My knees would have buckled if Logan hadn’t used one hand to pin my shoulder against the wall, holding me in place easily as the shudders worked through me. The orgasm was almost frighteningly intense. Embarrassingly so, as I was being watched fiercely by the two men in my life. And then it was over, and Logan let me go, and I hiked up my jeans and sank down to the floor, letting the wall support me now.


“Beefeater”
by Lisabet Sarai

This gaudy finery doesn't interest me. I'm focused on the undress uniform, the sea blue tunic and trousers with the ruby-red piping spelling out ER, Elizabeth Regina, across the chest. The jaunty hat with its circular brim. It's a chilly October night, and my uncle must be wearing the winter weight uniform. The summer uniform is wool too, but light, almost like linen. I reach out a finger and trace the bright trim around the cuff. It feels as though someone is trailing his fingers through the folds of my cunt.

Finally, impatient, I pull my jersey over my head and toss it on the floor, then undo my zip and step out of the skirt. Phil releases an appreciative wolf whistle. I hardly notice. I reach for the tunic, pull it from the hanger, slip my arms into the sleeves, fasten it up to my neck. It's loose, of course. Every time I move, the finely knit fabric brushes over my swollen nipples, fanning the smoldering heat in my cunt into new flame. The cuffs fit snugly. On the shelf I find a pair of spotless white gloves. I pull them on, then consider the trousers.

My cunt is soaked, dripping with desire. In my fantasies, I'm always bent over, my Beefeater's trousers pulled down to bare my bottom to the men waiting behind me. Geoff's pants are way too long, though. Plus if I bring them anywhere near my raunchy wet pussy, they'll be soaked and stained by my juices, and possibly spoiled forever.

That thought by itself almost makes me come. But I cling to a shred of common sense and pass the trousers by. Instead, I reach up to the shelf and pick up the hat. I plant it on top of my tangled red-brown curls. My hair's so thick that it's a perfect fit.

Want to review my book Crossdressing: Erotic Stories?

Do you have a blog or site about crossdressing or gender issues? Or an erotic blog with a wide readership? If so and you'd be interested in reviewing my new book Crossdressing: Erotic Stories or interviewing me, email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with your contact/site info and traffic, and what you'd want to do. I can't guarantee all requests but will do what I can - I'm especially looking for blogs/sites related to crossdressing, such as Sweatshop Sissy and Sissyville. The official pub date on Amazon is August 28th but I think books will be ready around mid-August and I'm truly excited. I already posted this info once but am reposting again in case you missed it, along with a teaser from my story "A Cute Idea."



Here's my introduction to my August anthology Crossdressing: Erotic Stories - hope it whets your appetite for more. As I said, rereading all the stories made me realize that this is one of my hottest books and should appeal not just to crossdressers and their fans but anyone who likes a good dirty story. So many of the pieces are about the tease, the allure, the hidden secrets, knowing and not knowing, and I think that makes them all the more interesting. Super high quality all around and I can't wait to see this one on shelves!

The Amazon copy reads:

From femmes who channel Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to men who love nothing more than the feel silky panties stretched tight against their skin, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl — or a guy — for a night. Drag queens get dolled up for a night on the town, a dyke packs a special surprise beneath her dress, and a devoted husband puts his dress-up skills to the ultimate test in this seductive new collection.

And my intro followed by the TOC

Crossing Boundaries and Bending Genders

Crossdressing spans such a wide range of possibilities, erotic and otherwise, that the only thing we can safely say brings the mélange of its practitioners under one umbrella is that they dress (sometimes or all the time) in the clothing of another gender. In an age when gender is becoming increasingly fluid, deconstructed, questioned, and sometimes abandoned, we can begin to see the idea and reality of crossdressing in a new light.

This book focuses on the erotic pleasures of crossdressing, while also touching on the life-changing, mind-melting, earth-shifting experiences that can come from actively playing with one’s gender. For some characters, crossdressing means transgressing, transforming, subverting the rules to enter another body in order to enter another world, literally or figuratively. Sometimes it gives them permission to go where they’d be unwanted otherwise. For other characters, playing with their attire lets their minds create the fantasy creature they’ve always longed to be. It means acting, homecoming, freedom. Sometimes, it’s a fun, risqué adventure, a break from the ordinary, a chance to see what might happen if you slipped into a dress or suited up. Would you be the same person? Would you feel the same? Would you get turned on in the same way? These questions and more get tackled in Crossdressing, though the answers are as varied as we are.

When these characters don the clothes of another gender, or another gender role, they find not just their bodies but their minds altered in powerful ways. What was once forbidden is now acceptable⎯or maybe it’s still taboo but even hotter because of it. When they literally step into someone else’s shoes, their bodies, minds, and libidos can explore passions they might not dare voice otherwise. Whether it’s the bra, panties, and garter tucked away under the charcoal-gray business suit or the bound breasts flattened under a drag king’s snazzy attire, clothes, as more than one character here can attest, do “make the man”⎯or woman, though the person inside those clothes creates his or her power from within as well.

In Stephen Albrow’s “More Than Meets the Eye,” his businessman protagonist has a secret under his suit that’s his private treasure, until he chooses to share it: “My Brooks Brothers shirt is thick enough to cover up my white satin bra and garter belt, but not so thick that I can’t feel the garter belt’s lace trim as I run my fingertip over my abs. Just knowing this little bit of Suzy is there is enough to calm my nerves.” Part of his narrator’s delight is in fooling those around him. Yet revealing Suzy to her special lover is a bold thrill that yields untold rewards, and it’s this push-pull of discovery and secrecy, of flaunting and hiding, of male and female that makes the story come alive.

These stories are not just about crossing genders but about living with the duality of one within the other, mixed together, mingling—the experience of living as one changing how a person lives as the other. Ashley Laine, the sensual, seductive drag queen narrator of Tulsa Brown’s exquisitely rendered “Temporary,” reveals the fear that haunts her at being found out: “When his thick fingers began to creep under my panties, I edged away, afraid to ripple the surface of his fantasy.” Yet she proceeds, risking rejection for the joy of bringing that duality together into her erotic life. You can feel the shivers Rory delivers to her with the words “Oh, girl”—two simple but powerful words that encapsulate the crux of both Brown’s story and this collection as a whole. When these characters⎯men, women, and those in between or neither at all⎯are finally able to be recognized for their chosen selves, the thrill goes far beyond the sexual.

Yet sex, desire, lust, and longing are front and center throughout, even as more complex gender dynamics come into play. In Debra Hyde’s “Just Like a Boy,” we learn that simply turning oneself into a “boy” is not enough for her narrator. She longs to be the boy of her childhood dreams, not “an androgyne in boy’s clothes.” Yet her venture into male territory isn’t only for her but for her lover, Matthias, as well. Hyde draws out the tension in this dominant/submissive relationship, where power gets exerted in twisted, yet intriguing, ways.

The power of uniform gets invoked in Lisabet Sarai’s humorous “Beefeater,” in which a young British woman mocks family⎯and tradition⎯to dress in the garb of the Yeoman Warders guarding the Tower of London. The secrecy of her mission, combined with the defiant naughtiness of their endeavor, had me rooting for them with all the fervor of anyone who’s deliberately disobeyed, half-hoping to get punished.

Crossdressers themselves aren’t the only ones here with a tale to tell. In T. Hitman’s “Higher and Higher,” Pete pretends to be his naughty alter ego, Nate, when he hires Roni, a “dudette” who shows Pete a few tricks as she turns one, worshipping him in ways nobody else ever has. His internal dilemma, caught between sheer arousal and propriety, between who he thinks he should desire and who he actually does, gives us a peek into how those who lust after crossdressers of any variety also struggle to embrace their wants.

In Crossdressing, you’ll find men in panties, butches in dresses, girls looking like boys, drag queens, drag kings, and those who can’t be tidily summed up by their outer appearance. You’ll find men who want to be men, only prettier, and women who don’t have penis envy per se, but don’t always want to be the little lady. In short, you’ll find people across the sexual-orientation spectrum fucking with gender and gender roles⎯and simply fucking.

At one point, looking at herself in the mirror, Brown’s drag queen says, “Some people might call this a fantasy, but it was my deepest truth.” Here you get hot fantasy, fiction, and the kind of truth that really matters, the kind that gets under our skin, under our clothes, under our disguises to a place that speaks to us deep in our erotic souls. Whatever you’re wearing right now (or not), I hope you’ll join me on this tour across stages real and imagined, where the limits of gender-bending are in the eyes of the beholder.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
April 2007

Foreword by Veronica Vera
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Temporary • Tulsa Brown
Just Like a Boy • Debra Hyde
Halloween • Helen Boyd
More Than Meets the Eye • Stephen Albrow
Tough Enough to Wear a Dress • Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer • Simon Sheppard
Tori’s Secret • Andrea Miller
Like a Girl • Alison Tyler
Michelle, Ma Belle • Marcy Sheiner
Beefeater • Lisabet Sarai
Phone Fatale • Stan Kent
I Need a Man • Andrea Dale
A Cute Idea • Rachel Kramer Bussel
Higher and Higher • T. Hitman
Birthday Girl • Jason Rubis
The Princess on the Rock • Elspeth Potter
Down the Basement • Ryan Field
Some Things Never Change • Melinda Johnson

And a tiny teaser from my story "A Cute Idea" - there's plenty of hotness later on too:

by Rachel Kramer Bussel

It started out as a cute idea, inspired by my boyfriend Neil’s close-to-perfect ass. He was naked, his tall, slim body bending over our dresser, burrowing around to try to find the pair of boxers he was sure was buried deep inside, even though he hadn’t done his laundry in weeks, maybe months. We’d reached a détente where I left him alone about the state of his dirty clothes hamper as long as he eventually got, or bought, clothes that wouldn’t make me crinkle my nose in alarm. He’d done pretty well over the last few months, though he was nowhere near approximating my weekly clothes wash, and he simply laughed when he found my voluminous collection of sexy, lacy, very delicate, expensive panties, garters, stockings and bras drying in our bathroom.

As I looked at his ass, which is, inarguably, the sexiest part of his rock-hard body (though there was plenty of close competition from his solid chest, strong arms, which he uses to carry me when I’m too tired to walk to the car at night, and, of course, amazing cock), the part I loved to grab, fondle, squeeze, and sometimes spank, an idea came to me. I heard him muttering to himself and knew he was probably out of briefs and even out of boxers, which were a far second in his choice of intimate apparel. “Hey honey, I have an idea. Why don’t you put on a pair of my panties? Maybe those new pink ones, with the bows,” I said, remembering our devilishly fun time shopping for the sexy pair, which I’d modeled for him in the dressing room.

He’d snuck in when nobody was looking, then been so turned on he couldn’t stop staring at me. I had swapped the basic, boring thong I’d been wearing for a pink, lacy, frothy concoction, which featured little bows along the edges that were there purely for decoration. With my shaved, sleek pussy visible through its sheer mesh front (I’d put them on over my little cotton thong), he just had to come a little closer and lick me to orgasm. “I can’t resist you in those,” Neil had groaned before lunging for me. I giggled quietly but was getting aroused myself. He’d wanted to do it with the panties on, but I’d hissed, “We still have to pay for them!” and so I’d taken them off, he’d feasted on me, pulling aside the thin fabric of the thong to get at my sex, leaving me quaking as I clung to the walls of the booth while a saleswoman pounded on the door. “Miss, you’ve been in there a long time—we have a line.”

“Just a sec,” I’d called out, my voice going higher as his tongue plunged deeper. I came, spasming against him, then hurriedly put my clothes back on, walking out with a blush splashed across my cheeks. We’d sheepishly hurried out of the dressing room, and I’d bought that same pair in every color they offered, filling my already overstocked panty drawer to the brim. In fact, my undies took up so much room that some had to go in his drawer, but I knew Neil didn’t mind.

Crossdressing anthology introduction

Here's my introduction to my August anthology Crossdressing: Erotic Stories - hope it whets your appetite for more. As I said, rereading all the stories made me realize that this is one of my hottest books and should appeal not just to crossdressers and their fans but anyone who likes a good dirty story. So many of the pieces are about the tease, the allure, the hidden secrets, knowing and not knowing, and I think that makes them all the more interesting. Super high quality all around and I can't wait to see this one on shelves!

The Amazon copy reads:

From femmes who channel Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to men who love nothing more than the feel silky panties stretched tight against their skin, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl — or a guy — for a night. Drag queens get dolled up for a night on the town, a dyke packs a special surprise beneath her dress, and a devoted husband puts his dress-up skills to the ultimate test in this seductive new collection.

And my intro followed by the TOC

Crossing Boundaries and Bending Genders

Crossdressing spans such a wide range of possibilities, erotic and otherwise, that the only thing we can safely say brings the mélange of its practitioners under one umbrella is that they dress (sometimes or all the time) in the clothing of another gender. In an age when gender is becoming increasingly fluid, deconstructed, questioned, and sometimes abandoned, we can begin to see the idea and reality of crossdressing in a new light.

This book focuses on the erotic pleasures of crossdressing, while also touching on the life-changing, mind-melting, earth-shifting experiences that can come from actively playing with one’s gender. For some characters, crossdressing means transgressing, transforming, subverting the rules to enter another body in order to enter another world, literally or figuratively. Sometimes it gives them permission to go where they’d be unwanted otherwise. For other characters, playing with their attire lets their minds create the fantasy creature they’ve always longed to be. It means acting, homecoming, freedom. Sometimes, it’s a fun, risqué adventure, a break from the ordinary, a chance to see what might happen if you slipped into a dress or suited up. Would you be the same person? Would you feel the same? Would you get turned on in the same way? These questions and more get tackled in Crossdressing, though the answers are as varied as we are.

When these characters don the clothes of another gender, or another gender role, they find not just their bodies but their minds altered in powerful ways. What was once forbidden is now acceptable⎯or maybe it’s still taboo but even hotter because of it. When they literally step into someone else’s shoes, their bodies, minds, and libidos can explore passions they might not dare voice otherwise. Whether it’s the bra, panties, and garter tucked away under the charcoal-gray business suit or the bound breasts flattened under a drag king’s snazzy attire, clothes, as more than one character here can attest, do “make the man”⎯or woman, though the person inside those clothes creates his or her power from within as well.

In Stephen Albrow’s “More Than Meets the Eye,” his businessman protagonist has a secret under his suit that’s his private treasure, until he chooses to share it: “My Brooks Brothers shirt is thick enough to cover up my white satin bra and garter belt, but not so thick that I can’t feel the garter belt’s lace trim as I run my fingertip over my abs. Just knowing this little bit of Suzy is there is enough to calm my nerves.” Part of his narrator’s delight is in fooling those around him. Yet revealing Suzy to her special lover is a bold thrill that yields untold rewards, and it’s this push-pull of discovery and secrecy, of flaunting and hiding, of male and female that makes the story come alive.

These stories are not just about crossing genders but about living with the duality of one within the other, mixed together, mingling—the experience of living as one changing how a person lives as the other. Ashley Laine, the sensual, seductive drag queen narrator of Tulsa Brown’s exquisitely rendered “Temporary,” reveals the fear that haunts her at being found out: “When his thick fingers began to creep under my panties, I edged away, afraid to ripple the surface of his fantasy.” Yet she proceeds, risking rejection for the joy of bringing that duality together into her erotic life. You can feel the shivers Rory delivers to her with the words “Oh, girl”—two simple but powerful words that encapsulate the crux of both Brown’s story and this collection as a whole. When these characters⎯men, women, and those in between or neither at all⎯are finally able to be recognized for their chosen selves, the thrill goes far beyond the sexual.

Yet sex, desire, lust, and longing are front and center throughout, even as more complex gender dynamics come into play. In Debra Hyde’s “Just Like a Boy,” we learn that simply turning oneself into a “boy” is not enough for her narrator. She longs to be the boy of her childhood dreams, not “an androgyne in boy’s clothes.” Yet her venture into male territory isn’t only for her but for her lover, Matthias, as well. Hyde draws out the tension in this dominant/submissive relationship, where power gets exerted in twisted, yet intriguing, ways.

The power of uniform gets invoked in Lisabet Sarai’s humorous “Beefeater,” in which a young British woman mocks family⎯and tradition⎯to dress in the garb of the Yeoman Warders guarding the Tower of London. The secrecy of her mission, combined with the defiant naughtiness of their endeavor, had me rooting for them with all the fervor of anyone who’s deliberately disobeyed, half-hoping to get punished.

Crossdressers themselves aren’t the only ones here with a tale to tell. In T. Hitman’s “Higher and Higher,” Pete pretends to be his naughty alter ego, Nate, when he hires Roni, a “dudette” who shows Pete a few tricks as she turns one, worshipping him in ways nobody else ever has. His internal dilemma, caught between sheer arousal and propriety, between who he thinks he should desire and who he actually does, gives us a peek into how those who lust after crossdressers of any variety also struggle to embrace their wants.

In Crossdressing, you’ll find men in panties, butches in dresses, girls looking like boys, drag queens, drag kings, and those who can’t be tidily summed up by their outer appearance. You’ll find men who want to be men, only prettier, and women who don’t have penis envy per se, but don’t always want to be the little lady. In short, you’ll find people across the sexual-orientation spectrum fucking with gender and gender roles⎯and simply fucking.

At one point, looking at herself in the mirror, Brown’s drag queen says, “Some people might call this a fantasy, but it was my deepest truth.” Here you get hot fantasy, fiction, and the kind of truth that really matters, the kind that gets under our skin, under our clothes, under our disguises to a place that speaks to us deep in our erotic souls. Whatever you’re wearing right now (or not), I hope you’ll join me on this tour across stages real and imagined, where the limits of gender-bending are in the eyes of the beholder.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
April 2007

Foreword by Veronica Vera
Introduction by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Temporary • Tulsa Brown
Just Like a Boy • Debra Hyde
Halloween • Helen Boyd
More Than Meets the Eye • Stephen Albrow
Tough Enough to Wear a Dress • Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Sweetheart of Sigma Queer • Simon Sheppard
Tori’s Secret • Andrea Miller
Like a Girl • Alison Tyler
Michelle, Ma Belle • Marcy Sheiner
Beefeater • Lisabet Sarai
Phone Fatale • Stan Kent
I Need a Man • Andrea Dale
A Cute Idea • Rachel Kramer Bussel
Higher and Higher • T. Hitman
Birthday Girl • Jason Rubis
The Princess on the Rock • Elspeth Potter
Down the Basement • Ryan Field
Some Things Never Change • Melinda Johnson

I heart copyediting

My new book Crossdressing: Erotic Stories, with a kickass foreword by Veronica Vera, is SO SO hot. Seriously. I had almost forgotten and I love it even more cause crossdressing isn't my personal fetish but it just may be now after reading all these stories. It'll be out before you know it - August! Will post my intro to it soon. Forging ahead on many, many fronts at the same time.

Here are some of the phrases the copyeditor noted for style:

3 a.m.
ass fuck (n.)
boy-fuck (n.)
bum-hole
capris
castoffs (n.)
cockhead
crossdressing
Dumpster
East, the
evening wear
face-fuck (v.)
fetish wear
fiftysomething
frat boy
frat house
It girl
leapt
makeup
Midsummer
Monster, the
okay
partyers
Philosophy section
phone-sex (adj.)
Post-it note (per company website)
PS
pussy whipped (p. adj.)
six foot two (p. adj.)
spandex
T-shirt

My hot new book coming in August: Crossdressing: a collection of erotic stories

My super-hot new book, coming in August, now available for pre-order:

Crossdressing: a collection of erotic stories

And Veronica Vera (who runs Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want To Be Girls - click on her name for more details) is writing the foreword! It's almost done and I'm so thrilled with the variety. It's funny because there are some "straight" stories, as in, the sex is between a man and a woman, but even that I don't really consider totally "straight" when it comes to crossdressing. We've also got drag queens, butches in dresses, femmes packing, boys in panties, disguises, and so much more.

Here's the blurb currently on Amazon:

Sultry stories about slipping into something more comfortable, whether a tux or a teddy.
Explores the erotic thrill of crossing the gender divide and mixing things up in and out of the bedroom.
From femmes who channel Marlene Dietrich in the sexiest of suits to men who love nothing more than the feel silky panties stretched tight against their skin, these characters boldly indulge their fantasies of being a girl — or a guy — for a night. Drag queens get dolled up for a night on the town, a dyke packs a special surprise beneath her dress, and a devoted husband puts his dress-up skills to the ultimate test in this seductive new collection.

(Note to writers: I'm still finalizing the stories, so please be patient.)