Dirty Girls flash sale - 27 erotica stories for $1.99!

I just found out last night while randomly scrolling online, as one does, that my Seal Press anthology Dirty Girls is on sale in ebook form for just $1.99 for Kindle, Nook, Google Play and Kobo! I don't know when the sale started or when it will end, though I imagine soon, so I encourage you to check it out. There are 27 very sexy stories inside. I'm so proud of this book, which came out all the way back in 2008 (hence the MySpace reference in the introduction!), and excited for it to reach more readers. Details about it below.



What do women really want? To be sensually seduced or pressed up against the wall for a quickie? To be tantalized by a peep show or the chance to join the mile high club?

Acclaimed erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel knows: They want it all. They want to be worshiped, ordered around, sent blindly into ecstasy, and made hot in front of a mirror. They want strangers bearing ice cubes on a hot day and to be the party favor passed around among guests. They want sex at the office and in the great outdoors and on trains and airplanes. They want sex with the whole United States of America (or, at least, part of it). They want to be wooed, seduced, flirted with, taken. They want to handpick their lovers and make them do their bidding. They want men, women, and sometimes both at the same time.

In Dirty Girls, the country’s best erotic writers explore their sexual psyches. With contributions from Carol Queen, Alison Tyler, Sofia Quintero, Shanna Germain, Lillian Ann Slugocki, Tsaurah Litzky, and many others, this collection will set your heart racing as you savor these intimate, shocking, and passionate female fantasies.

Blurbs:

“Finally⎯a book about what girls REALLY think about. Well, maybe not every one, but the dirty ones…and those are the ones who really count.” — Joanna Angel, CEO, BurningAngel Entertainment

“Dirty Girls is the post-feminist generation’s answer to Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, a collection of erotically charged short stories that reveal that, in the 21st century, good girls are dead and dirty girls are the new black.” — Susannah Breslin, author of You’re a Bad Man, Aren’t You?

“A spanking good collection of smart erotica assembled by always exciting ringleader Rachel Kramer Bussel, Dirty Girls begs the question ‘What are those dirty girls thinking?’ and answers with insight not just to how women want it, but why.” — Lisa Beth Kovetz, author of The Tuesday Erotica Club

“This is an outstanding collection of hot women’s stories. That’s hot stories by women and stories by hot women. The table of contents reads like a who’s who in the best erotica writers around, an All Star team who deliver the raunch and punch the reader deserves. Rawr.” — Cecilia Tan, author of Black Feathers and White Flames: Erotic Dreams

Table of Contents

Introduction – Dirty and Sweet Wrapped Up in One

1. Fucking Around by Marie Lyn Bernard
2. Live Tonight by Saskia Walker
3. Just Another Girl on the Train by Catherine Lundoff
4. Beautiful Creature by Kristina Wright
5. In the Name Of… by Isabelle Gray
6. Cheesy Boots by L. Elise Bland
7. Truck Stop Cinderella by Lillian Ann Slugocki
8. The Dream of Life by Tenille Brown
9. The Mile High Club by Kate Dominic
10. Like a Good Girl by Alison Tyler
11. The Garden of Sinn by Darklady
12. Bag and Baggage by Teresa Noelle Roberts
13. Icy Hot by Rachel Kramer Bussel
14. Dreams by Marilyn Jaye Lewis
15. Shocking Expose! Secrets Revealed! by Carol Queen
16. To Dance at the Fair by Donna George Storey
17. The First Deadly Sin by Gwen Masters
18. El Mar de Encanto by Sofia Quintero
19. Flight by Suki Bishop
20. Lily by Tsaurah Litzky
21. Opera Gloves by Maddy Stuart
22. Party Favor by Andrea Dale
23. Carn Euny by Madelynne Ellis
24. A Prayer to Be Made Cocksure by Melissa Gira
25. All About Hearts by Sage Vivant
26. The Next Thing by Gina de Vries
27. Until It’s Gone by Shanna Germain

Introduction: Dirty and Sweet Wrapped Up in One

“I can be dirty and sweet at the same time” reads my self-proclaimed motto on my MySpace page. When I wrote that, I meant that not so deep inside me lurks the soul of a highly perverted, kinky, dirty girl who can get aroused often by a single word whispered in my ear or a solid smack across my ass. Once someone gets me into that zone, I’ll do anything, no matter how depraved, to be with them. I’ll find myself fantasizing about all the wicked things we can do together throughout the day and night, waking from wild dreams with the wish that they were beside me. I’ll see their name in my inbox and get instantly wet. I’ll tell them in public exactly what I want them to do to me, and vice versa. Yes, that’s what I mean by “dirty.”

Yet I don’t think my sexual interests make me any less of a well-rounded, kind-hearted intelligent person. I’m “sweet” in the sense that I care about my friends and family, like sending cards and random gifts, strive to be a good person (also, I run a blog about cupcakes). I’m as likely to kiss a lover’s forehead tenderly and offer to tuck them into bed as I am to throw them down on the floor and strip them naked. For me, the sweet and tender and down-and-dirty go hand in hand; I’m most turned on, and most slutty, when I’m partnered with someone who brings out my sweet side. Once, I visited a boyfriend who was sick with a fever, and did the one thing I could think of to make him feel better: sank down on his bed and took his cock in my mouth. Playing the slutty nurse, horny yet doting, is another aspect to my dirty/sweet motto.

I’d originally meant the phrase as a throwaway line, but more and more I’m realizing that everyone (or almost everyone) has a dirty and a sweet side. All too often we denigrate the dirty girls⎯the ones who dare to publicly show their naughty sides⎯as incorrigible sluts, rather than realizing just how much exciting it is to tap into our lustiest selves. Once you crack the surface of those who are seemingly prim and proper (the demure suburban housewife, the suited-up banker, the quiet secretary, the curious bookworm, the shy computer nerd), you’ll very likely find that the simplicity of the word “dirty” doesn’t go anywhere near far enough to describe the kinks that lurk within them.

The women writing here don’t apologize for being dirty. They know who and what they want and they go after the objects of their affection in all kinds of different ways. Reading this collection⎯whether from start to finish or skipping around to your favorite authors or the most eye-catching titles⎯will give you a glimpse into what makes women wet, what makes us feel and act dirty, what makes us slick our lips and spread our legs. Maybe, just maybe, their stories attempt to answer Freud’s infamously infuriating query: “What do women want?” To judge by the twenty-seven tales you hold in your hand, they want to be worshiped, they want to be ordered around, they want to be sent spinning into ecstasy and then come crashing back down. They want strangers bearing ice cubes on a hot day, and to be a party favor passed around among guests. They want hot vacation sex, visits to peep shows, and a man who’ll lick stinky cheese off their boots. They want power, and they want to give up power. They want sex at the office and in the great outdoors and on trains and airplanes. They want sex with the whole United States of America (or, at least, part of it). They want to be wooed, seduced, flirted with, taken. They want men, women, and sometimes both at the same time.

Of course, there’s more to what women want out of sex than any one book could possibly capture. What I’ve done with this anthology is highlight some of the best erotic writing I’ve found from authors who show you exactly what makes their hearts beat and their clits stand at attention. What they’re up to is, as Marie Lyn Bernard so aptly puts it, “Fucking Around” (which I briefly considered as a very fitting alternative title to this book). When I first heard Bernard read this story tag-team style at my reading series “In The Flesh,” I was blown away. She captures so much of the drama of sex⎯the high highs, the low lows, the awkwardness and the intensity⎯in a playful yet totally hot way. And when she writes about the Big Apple, it’ll make you want to hop the first plane or train to get here: “New York fucks me. New York fucks me so hard that I cry. My pussy opens like the long throat of a flame-swallower. Her fingers make love to the inside of my bellybutton. I am sweating so much that our bodies glide against each other like fish underwater.” You’ll find yourself drawing a map of your own sexual conquests, marking your territory right along with Bernard.

But for every feisty babe here, there’s another just in the process of discovering what turns her on. “Dirty” can be a state of mind just as much as it can be a description of one’s bedroom antics. Carol Queen’s peepshow virgin protagonist Abby doesn’t quite know what she’s getting into with her new friends Daniel and Lila, but she desperately wants to find out. “Lila’s lips covered hers right away, soft and wet, licking and nibbling in one of the most arousing kisses Abby had ever experienced,” writes Queen. “Dirty” doesn’t always mean depraved, either; these stories aren’t all wham-bam-thank-you-sir (or ma’am) quickies. Many of them evoke the intensity of emotion sex can bring with it, the ways having a lover know you literally inside and out can throw your life completely off balance, as if they can read your soul like a map, using fingers, toys, tongues, and cocks to navigate you until they own your internal compass. The thrill of giving yourself over to someone, of giving up control for that deliciously delirious sensation of pure erotic adrenaline, surfaces throughout this collection.

The women you’ll find here are complex; they’re by turns playful and bashful, horny and haughty. They want to share much more with you than just the details of their latest screw. They want you to know what makes them tick, who haunts their dreams, why they can’t quite forget the man who fucked them senseless, even when they’re with someone new. They like to watch and be watched, to take risks, to live out their long-held fantasies. Some are in loving, committed relationships, ones that allow them room to get their freak on with the person who knows just how to push their every button. Others, like my “Icy Hot” protagonist, don’t even want to know their bedmate’s name: “I forgot about the fact that I didn’t really know him at all. Sometimes, in a city of millions of strangers, you just have to take a chance and let your body make the decisions for you, as I’ve learned over the years. And my body was saying yes, please, more, harder.”

“Dirty” doesn’t preclude poetry, the kind where the words roll off the page, roll from your tongue, so beautifully it’s like they themselves are making love to you. Writers like Marilyn Jaye Lewis, Suki Bishop, and Melissa Gira probe the twisted places women go in search of sex⎯and themselves. In “A Prayer to Be Made Cocksure,” Gira elevates the art of the blowjob to new heights: “I sucked your cock as if it was the last cock. I trusted you to let me keep breathing, to never take that final bit from me, to tell me that getting any air at all was your choice just by reaching your hand down the length of your chest to me, to cradle the back of my neck, to run your fingers across my lips, softly, as you plunged suddenly and held me at the edge.” She takes you right into that moment, where this intimate act is dissected, treasured, hoarded, and missed.

You’ll find a range of motivations here, from women looking to spice up a lackluster relationship to single girls on the prowl to kinky couples, daring dommes, and sultry sirens intent on performing on a sexual stage of their own creation. You may read their stories and ask yourself: Would you ever write your name across your lover’s cock? What about pick up a stranger at a rock concert or screw a doctor in a hospital? Get fingered at the opera? Go to a bondage club? These characters do all this and more, always making sure their wanting, lusting, panting, and perversions are met with equal fervor.

Take a hot and steamy trip with these writers as they unlock your deepest desires, or perhaps give you some new ideas to try out next time you shut your eyes and part your legs. From tender to tempting, sweet to sadistic, loving to lascivious, there’s something for every reader who wants to go to bed with images that’ll surely make you blush and just may spark some brand-new, unique fantasies of your very own.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City
July 2007

Buy my erotica books in Berlin at vegan sex shop Other Nature

Yesterday, I read an article at Upworthy about feminist sex shops, specifically Other Nature in Berlin. They describe themselves on their site as "Other Nature is a feminist, queer-oriented, eco-friendly, vegan sex shop in Berlin Kreuzberg." Well, imagine my delight when I discovered that they carry my women's erotica anthologies Dirty Girls and the German translation of Fast Girls, which has a much sexier cover than the U.S. version, which is hot in its own way and is one of my favorite of my books:


on the Other Nature site

Both editions side by side:



Naturally (pun intended), I Tweeted about it, and here's what they said:



To inspire you wherever you are in the world as we head into Valentine's Day, here's my naked bubble bath book trailer for Fast Girls, whose title was inspired by the song of the same name by one of my favorite bands, Sarge (read more about that in the introduction to the book). Watching this again makes me miss making book trailers. People ask me sometimes whether they help sell books. Short and succinct answer: I have no idea, but I really enjoyed the process. As someone whose only real artistic talents lie with words, getting to work with images, to be onscreen and plan out these videos, was a lot of fine. It's not feasible to do these days, but I consider them a fond memory and wonderful learning experience.



For those outside Berlin, here's where you can grab a copy in print, ebook or audiobook form:

Amazon.com

Kindle ebook edition

Bn.com

Nook ebook edition

Powell's

IndieBound (find your nearest local bookstore)

iBooks

Google Play

Audible audiobook

Cleis Press

2 new erotica audiobooks: Dirty Girls and Curvy Girls

Dirty Girls has been my bestselling of my over 40 anthologies, which says a lot, and now it's available as an audiobook from Audible! Click through for a free sample listen. Click here to read my introduction to this action-packed, extremely varied 27-story anthology, with authors including Marie Lyn Bernard, Alison Tyler, Carol Queen, Sofia Quintero, Melissa Gira and many others.



Curvy Girls, featuring plus size women of various kinds, from athletic (I love the way Sommer Marsden interpreted the theme in the opening story "Runner's Calves" and hope athletic women and runners will especially appreciate it!) to kinky to butch to ones with big asses, is also available as an audiobook. Click through for a free sample listen.



Here's the table of contents and description:

Foreword: The Volumptuous Life by April Flores
Introduction: Curves and Attitude by Rachel Kramer Bussel


Runner’s Calves by Sommer Marsden
Before the Autumn Queen by Angela Caperton
Champagne & Cheesecake by A.M. Hartnett
First Come, First Serve by Lolita Lopez
Small Packages by Tenille Brown
Decadence by Satia Welsh
Excuses by Nina Reyes
Recognition by Salome Wilde and Talon Rihai
Passing the Time by Gwen Masters
First Date by Louise Hooker
At Last by Jessica Lennox
Wenching by Justine Elyot
What Girls Are Made Of by Evan Mora
Appetite by Elizabeth Coldwell
In The Early Morning Light by Kristina Wright
See and Be Seen by Arlette Brand
Big Girls Do Cry by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Marked by Isabelle Gray
Happy Ending by Donna George Storey

Over 10,000 copies of Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women sold!

Remember when I said that my erotica doesn't sell? Well, a lot of it doesn't sell that well, at least, not in proportion to the time it takes me to edit the books/money+effort spent promoting them.

But I just got yet another royalty check for Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women and was thrilled to see that since it went on sale in April 2008, it's sold over 10,000 copies, making it far and away my bestselling book (that I get royalties on - Up All Night may have sold more but obviously only Alyson cares since I don't get royalties - worst. rookie. mistake. ever.). I'm so thrilled so wanted to share some information about it here.

What do women really want? To be sensually seduced or pressed up against the wall for a quickie? To be tantalized by a peep show or the chance to join the mile high club?

Acclaimed erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel knows: They want it all. They want to be worshiped, ordered around, sent blindly into ecstasy, and made hot in front of a mirror. They want strangers bearing ice cubes on a hot day and to be the party favor passed around among guests. They want sex at the office and in the great outdoors and on trains and airplanes. They want sex with the whole United States of America (or, at least, part of it). They want to be wooed, seduced, flirted with, taken. They want to handpick their lovers and make them do their bidding. They want men, women, and sometimes both at the same time.

In Dirty Girls, the country’s best erotic writers explore their sexual psyches. With contributions from Carol Queen, Alison Tyler, Sofia Quintero, Shanna Germain, Lillian Ann Slugocki, Tsaurah Litzky, and many others, this collection will set your heart racing as you savor these intimate, shocking, and passionate female fantasies.

Blurbs:

“Finally⎯a book about what girls REALLY think about. Well, maybe not


every one, but the dirty ones…and those are the ones who really

count.” — Joanna Angel, CEO, BurningAngel Entertainment

“Dirty Girls is the post-feminist generation’s answer to Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, a collection of erotically charged short stories that reveal that, in the 21st century, good girls are dead and dirty girls are the new black.” — Susannah Breslin, author of You’re a Bad Man, Aren’t You?

“A spanking good collection of smart erotica assembled by always exciting ringleader Rachel Kramer Bussel, Dirty Girls begs the question ‘What are those dirty girls thinking?’ and answers with insight not just to how women want it, but why.”

– Lisa Beth Kovetz, author of The Tuesday Erotica Club

“This is an outstanding collection of hot women’s stories. That’s hot stories by women and stories by hot women. The table of contents reads like a who’s who in the best erotica writers around, an All Star team who deliver the raunch and punch the reader deserves. Rawr.”


– Cecilia Tan, author of Black Feathers and White Flames: Erotic Dreams

Table of Contents

Introduction – Dirty and Sweet Wrapped Up in One

1. Fucking Around by Marie Lyn Bernard

2. Live Tonight by Saskia Walker


3. Just Another Girl on the Train by Catherine Lundoff

4. Beautiful Creature by Kristina Wright

5. In the Name Of… by Isabelle Gray

6. Cheesy Boots by L. Elise Bland

7. Truck Stop Cinderella by Lillian Ann Slugocki

8. The Dream of Life by Tenille Brown

9. The Mile High Club by Kate Dominic

10. Like a Good Girl by Alison Tyler

11. The Garden of Sinn by Darklady


12. Bag and Baggage by Teresa Noelle Roberts

13. Icy Hot by Rachel Kramer Bussel

14. Dreams by Marilyn Jaye Lewis

15. Shocking Expose! Secrets Revealed! by Carol Queen

16. To Dance at the Fair by Donna George Storey

17. The First Deadly Sin by Gwen Masters

18. El Mar de Encanto by Sofia Quintero

19. Flight by Suki Bishop

20. Lily by Tsaurah Litzky

21. Opera Gloves by Maddy Stuart

22. Party Favor by Andrea Dale

23. Carn Euny by Madelynne Ellis

24. A Prayer to Be Made Cocksure by Melissa Gira

25. All About Hearts by Sage Vivant

26. The Next Thing by Gina de Vries

27. Until It’s Gone by Shanna Germain

Introduction: Dirty and Sweet Wrapped Up in One

“I can be dirty and sweet at the same time” reads my self-proclaimed motto on my MySpace page. When I wrote that, I meant that not so deep inside me lurks the soul of a highly perverted, kinky, dirty girl who can get aroused often by a single word whispered in my ear or a solid smack across my ass. Once someone gets me into that zone, I’ll do anything, no matter how depraved, to be with them. I’ll find myself fantasizing about all the wicked things we can do together throughout the day and night, waking from wild dreams with the wish that they were beside me. I’ll see their name in my inbox and get instantly wet. I’ll tell them in public exactly what I want them to do to me, and vice versa. Yes, that’s what I mean by “dirty.”

Yet I don’t think my sexual interests make me any less of a well-rounded, kind-hearted intelligent person. I’m “sweet” in the sense that I care about my friends and family, like sending cards and random gifts, strive to be a good person (also, I run a blog about cupcakes). I’m as likely to kiss a lover’s forehead tenderly and offer to tuck them into bed as I am to throw them down on the floor and strip them naked. For me, the sweet and tender and down-and-dirty go hand in hand; I’m most turned on, and most slutty, when I’m partnered with someone who brings out my sweet side. Once, I visited a boyfriend who was sick with a fever, and did the one thing I could think of to make him feel better: sank down on his bed and took his cock in my mouth. Playing the slutty nurse, horny yet doting, is another aspect to my dirty/sweet motto.

I’d originally meant the phrase as a throwaway line, but more and more I’m realizing that everyone (or almost everyone) has a dirty and a sweet side. All too often we denigrate the dirty girls⎯the ones who dare to publicly show their naughty sides⎯as incorrigible sluts, rather than realizing just how much exciting it is to tap into our lustiest selves. Once you crack the surface of those who are seemingly prim and proper (the demure suburban housewife, the suited-up banker, the quiet secretary, the curious bookworm, the shy computer nerd), you’ll very likely find that the simplicity of the word “dirty” doesn’t go anywhere near far enough to describe the kinks that lurk within them.

The women writing here don’t apologize for being dirty. They know who and what they want and they go after the objects of their affection in all kinds of different ways. Reading this collection⎯whether from start to finish or skipping around to your favorite authors or the most eye-catching titles⎯will give you a glimpse into what makes women wet, what makes us feel and act dirty, what makes us slick our lips and spread our legs. Maybe, just maybe, their stories attempt to answer Freud’s infamously infuriating query: “What do women want?” To judge by the twenty-seven tales you hold in your hand, they want to be worshiped, they want to be ordered around, they want to be sent spinning into ecstasy and then come crashing back down. They want strangers bearing ice cubes on a hot day, and to be a party favor passed around among guests. They want hot vacation sex, visits to peep shows, and a man who’ll lick stinky cheese off their boots. They want power, and they want to give up power. They want sex at the office and in the great outdoors and on trains and airplanes. They want sex with the whole United States of America (or, at least, part of it). They want to be wooed, seduced, flirted with, taken. They want men, women, and sometimes both at the same time.

Of course, there’s more to what women want out of sex than any one book could possibly capture. What I’ve done with this anthology is highlight some of the best erotic writing I’ve found from authors who show you exactly what makes their hearts beat and their clits stand at attention. What they’re up to is, as Marie Lyn Bernard so aptly puts it, “Fucking Around” (which I briefly considered as a very fitting alternative title to this book). When I first heard Bernard read this story tag-team style at my reading series “In The Flesh,” I was blown away. She captures so much of the drama of sex⎯the high highs, the low lows, the awkwardness and the intensity⎯in a playful yet totally hot way. And when she writes about the Big Apple, it’ll make you want to hop the first plane or train to get here: “New York fucks me. New York fucks me so hard that I cry. My pussy opens like the long throat of a flame-swallower. Her fingers make love to the inside of my bellybutton. I am sweating so much that our bodies glide against each other like fish underwater.” You’ll find yourself drawing a map of your own sexual conquests, marking your territory right along with Bernard.

But for every feisty babe here, there’s another just in the process of discovering what turns her on. “Dirty” can be a state of mind just as much as it can be a description of one’s bedroom antics. Carol Queen’s peepshow virgin protagonist Abby doesn’t quite know what she’s getting into with her new friends Daniel and Lila, but she desperately wants to find out. “Lila’s lips covered hers right away, soft and wet, licking and nibbling in one of the most arousing kisses Abby had ever experienced,” writes Queen. “Dirty” doesn’t always mean depraved, either; these stories aren’t all wham-bam-thank-you-sir (or ma’am) quickies. Many of them evoke the intensity of emotion sex can bring with it, the ways having a lover know you literally inside and out can throw your life completely off balance, as if they can read your soul like a map, using fingers, toys, tongues, and cocks to navigate you until they own your internal compass. The thrill of giving yourself over to someone, of giving up control for that deliciously delirious sensation of pure erotic adrenaline, surfaces throughout this collection.

The women you’ll find here are complex; they’re by turns playful and bashful, horny and haughty. They want to share much more with you than just the details of their latest screw. They want you to know what makes them tick, who haunts their dreams, why they can’t quite forget the man who fucked them senseless, even when they’re with someone new. They like to watch and be watched, to take risks, to live out their long-held fantasies. Some are in loving, committed relationships, ones that allow them room to get their freak on with the person who knows just how to push their every button. Others, like my “Icy Hot” protagonist, don’t even want to know their bedmate’s name: “I forgot about the fact that I didn’t really know him at all. Sometimes, in a city of millions of strangers, you just have to take a chance and let your body make the decisions for you, as I’ve learned over the years. And my body was saying yes, please, more, harder.”

“Dirty” doesn’t preclude poetry, the kind where the words roll off the page, roll from your tongue, so beautifully it’s like they themselves are making love to you. Writers like Marilyn Jaye Lewis, Suki Bishop, and Melissa Gira probe the twisted places women go in search of sex⎯and themselves. In “A Prayer to Be Made Cocksure,” Gira elevates the art of the blowjob to new heights: “I sucked your cock as if it was the last cock. I trusted you to let me keep breathing, to never take that final bit from me, to tell me that getting any air at all was your choice just by reaching your hand down the length of your chest to me, to cradle the back of my neck, to run your fingers across my lips, softly, as you plunged suddenly and held me at the edge.” She takes you right into that moment, where this intimate act is dissected, treasured, hoarded, and missed.

You’ll find a range of motivations here, from women looking to spice up a lackluster relationship to single girls on the prowl to kinky couples, daring dommes, and sultry sirens intent on performing on a sexual stage of their own creation. You may read their stories and ask yourself: Would you ever write your name across your lover’s cock? What about pick up a stranger at a rock concert or screw a doctor in a hospital? Get fingered at the opera? Go to a bondage club? These characters do all this and more, always making sure their wanting, lusting, panting, and perversions are met with equal fervor.

Take a hot and steamy trip with these writers as they unlock your deepest desires, or perhaps give you some new ideas to try out next time you shut your eyes and part your legs. From tender to tempting, sweet to sadistic, loving to lascivious, there’s something for every reader who wants to go to bed with images that’ll surely make you blush and just may spark some brand-new, unique fantasies of your very own.

Rachel Kramer Bussel

New York City

July 2007

Press:

Interview with me about erotica at Bookslut

Listen to me talk about erotica in a podcast at Seal Press

Read an excerpt from "Shocking Exposé! Secrets Revealed!" by Carol Queen

Lucrezia Magazine review:

However, Dirty Girls is certainly not just for girls alone. As Bussel was quick to point out at the New York launch party, which I attended, the book’s original title was Dirty Girls: Erotica by Women. Anyone with a love of erotic fiction can explore his or her dirty side with this volume. And I guarantee anyone will want to.

Get the best seats in the house at the Lusty Lady Theatre in the legendary Carol Queen’s “Shocking Expose! Secrets Revealed!” Explore a tangle of the senses and a melding of two strangers’ bodies in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s expertly crafted tale “Icy Hot.” Encounter the post-structuralist implications of ownership and autonomy within a relationship as Isabelle Gray’s “In the Name Of …” sees a couple exploring sensual pleasures outside their marriage for the first time. And delight in a darkly-tinged, BDSM tale in Alison Tyler’s provocative “Like a Good Girl.”

Fleshbot review:

At 27 stories long, “Dirty Girls” is a book for “literary size queens” (at least according to editor Rachel Kramer Bussel). Even though we usually tend to prefer our books short and sweet—who doesn’t like a good quickie?—we can’t deny that this book is well worth a read: from girls who like to take to stories of girls who like to be taken; girls who like girls, girls who like boys, and girls who like both; waitresses, dommes, college professors, college students … well, you can probably figure out that there’s something for everyone in this collection. (And don’t be discouraged by that “erotica for women” tagline: it may be made for a woman, but we promise it’s hot enough for a man as well.

Author interviews:

Interview with Tenille Brown ("The Change of Life")

Interview with Melissa Gira ("A Prayer to be Made Cocksure")

Interview with Gina de Vries

Interview with Donna George Storey

Interview with Kristina Wright

Interview with Lillian Ann Slugocki

Interview with Marie Lyn Bernard (watch her reading her story - part 1 and part 2)

Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women virtual book tour!

For sale from:

Amazon

Bn.com

Powells

Photos below by Stacie Joy at Dirty Girls NYC book party:




L to R: Lillian Ann Slugocki, Sofia Quintero, Suki Bishop, Rachel Kramer Bussel



More information at the Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women blog

Old interview with Tango

Which is now YourTango.com and I will be writing for them a little bit if I can get off my ass and finish a few things. Just saw on YouTube that this great interview they did with me has been viewed over 42,000 times. Very cool.

Is my Dirty Girls book cover sexist?

I'll be responding more to this soon, but I wanted to post about it so you can go read what's being said.

Apparently my Dirty Girls cover (photo by Merkley???) is causing controversy. Again.

from Erotica Cover Watch:

Time and again, women are put in the position of ‘object of desire’ rather than ‘subject actively desiring’. And the object of our desire – a man – is missing from the picture entirely. For a woman to say she wants a sexy man is not, as is sometimes thought, a weakness, a chink in the armour of female liberation. Expressing your lust, claiming your right to sexual satisfaction, being a person who is actively desiring is poles apart from the caricature of a needy, dependent woman who yearns for a man because without him she is a moony, ditzy sap foundering in her own inadequacy.
In rejecting this caricature, let’s not chuck out the baby with the bath water (or the penis with the patriarchy). Let’s not be afraid to say, as women, ‘I want a hot guy.’ We can retain our autonomy and do this without adding the usual fucked-up twist – I want a hot guy to want me, to find me attractive, to look at me with lust as I lie on this couch in a sultry mish-mash of availability and aloofness.

from the Lust Bites post:
Sure, if you’re a bi woman, you might like the picture too but presumably you’d be equally happy with a gorgeous guy. And it’s odd, isn’t it – suspicious even – that on erotica covers, the only aspects of female bisexuality represented are the ones that heterosexual men get off on quite majorly? How jolly convenient! Because the fact is the preponderance of the female form in erotica isn’t an act of generosity towards women who like women, anymore than the plethora of hot-honeys-go-pussy-crazy porn is about lesbian consumer choice. It’s just a side effect of what straight men like.

What I think is interesting is that I'm publishing a piece from Lust Bites by Kristina Lloyd, co-creator of Erotica Cover Watch, called "The Pleasure of Unpleasure" in my non-fiction anthology Best Sex Writing 2009, out in January from Cleis Press. The cover, shot by the fabulous Christine Kessler (do check out her drool-worthy Flickr account and her blog and her book Pervy Girls), is below:

Dirty Girls gets rave review in Baltimore City Paper

My anthology Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women just got a rave review by Petula Caeser in Baltimore City Paper. (There's even a really cute illustration!)

Of Marie Lyn Bernard's opening story "Fucking Around" she writes:

It's such a creative spin on erotic writing that I must admit to some professional jealousy as a fellow erotica writer.

She goes on to say:

...the way the Dominic writes about the calm manner in which he describes each act before he skillfully and excitedly executes it is erotica at its best.

It is just that type of creativity that keeps you engaged with theses stories, from beginning to end, no matter what the subject. It is easy for a writer to exhaust his or her options as far as scenarios, motivations, and descriptive language go when it comes to writing about sex, so I applaud these women for keeping their work fresh. Even when an author resorts to tried/true erotic themes--such as voyeurism, infidelity, strangers having sex in unexpected places, or threesomes--there were always enjoyable surprises in the plot, word choices, or characters. Bussel has done some of her best editorial work with Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women. Each and every one of the book's 394 pages shows she knows what girls like--and you're fortunate that she does.

Video interview about erotica and Dirty Girls

I did a video interview for Tango magazine about erotica and my book Dirty Girls, which just went into its 2nd printing!

Listen to me talk about Dirty Girls

Amanda Marcotte interviewed me for the RH Reality Check podcast. We talked about erotica, men's and women's x-rated reading habits, and why I picked the stories I did in Dirty Girls.

Gay couples continue to celebrate the new right to settle down into the monogamous "lifestyle", abstinence-only nuts consider forbidding teenagers to have doors that shut, and Rush Limbaugh continues to have a job. Also, we shake it up with an interview with erotica editor Rachel Kramer Bussel about dirty stories and feminism.

Hear me talk about Dirty Girls

I have lots of overdue posts, but for now, a podcast interview with me by Felicia Pride promoting Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women.

Click on the book cover to listen:

Rachel Kramer Bussel

Everyone has fantasies, whether they talk about them or not. As an acclaimed erotica writer and the editor of Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women, Rachel Kramer Bussel is intimately acquainted with the wide range of fantasies (and people, and places, and stories) that turn women on. In this episode, Bussel talks about how she got her start as an erotica writer; exactly what's meant by "erotica for women"; and the context she believes erotica can provide to feminism.

Listen to This Podcast

About the Book

About the Author

Tired and Dirty

The formerly long-haired Justine Joli

I have more to say but flew home on a redeye (cagey American Airlines called yesterday and said my flight was postponed, but never called back to say it was cancelled, so I wound up on an overnight flight) so am a bit tired and have much catching up to do. Just ran into the insanely hot porn star, redhead, and now burlesque star Justine Joli, who is doing burlesque this Friday and will be at the Cat O' Nine party on Sunday. Her hair is super short now! I ran into her in the lobby of Sirius Radio, located at 1221 Avenue of the Americas, notable for me personally cause I used to work here as an admin assistant way back in 2000/2001. I was on the super fun Devore and Diana show to talk about Dirty Girls

You can also hear me talk about Dirty Girls in this Seal Press podcast. I got interviewed by Felicia Pride, who was fabulous. And AVN Novelty gave the book a little writeup too. Yay!

San Francisco snapshots

Some Dirty Girls reading snapshots by Guy Gayle (see full set on Flickr). Many thanks to all the wonderful readers, Les of Cafe Royale for hosting, Red Stripe for sponsoring, the people with the free chutney samples (sorry, don't have their company name in front of me) and Andie East of Seal Press for being an awesome publicist and coming to my rescue with books. The reading went really well and it was wonderful to see so many familiar faces in the audience.

And is it me or is it kindof juvenile for the chutney person to have done the rabbit ears in this photo?



L to R: Melissa Gira, Donna George Storey, Gina de Vries, Carol Queen, me

My friend Shar Rednour of Sharlene's Babycakes, pictured with me below, is the woman who published my very first erotica story way back when, "Monica and Me," in her anthology Starf*cker. For a long time, I had the answering machine message she left me saved on tape. She made so many cupcakes for me, but I only got to try the sunken lemon ones. So good!

Book party tonight for Dirty Girls in San Francisco!

Party tonight! Free! 7-9 pm, at Cafe Royale, 800 Post Street at Leavenworth, San Francisco. With me, Carol Queen, Melissa Gira, Gina de Vries, and Donna George Storey, with free cupcakes from Sharlene's Babycakes.




Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women

the old "Dirty" me

Because I've been a little lax about organizing my virtual book tour for Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women, I'm giving myself the spot today. ANd it seemed appropriate to repost an essay called "Dirty" that was published at Scarlet Letters in 2003.

I hate rereading my work, especially old work. I know that some of this has changed, some has stayed the same. I feel weird even posting it, and will say that, uh, if you're related to me, you probably want to stop reading now. Anyway, though, the thing about writing is is that it's there forever, and yet we change. The thing with blogs, social networks, Twitter, etc., is that people who thrive on them, I think, are fast-paced. Fast talkers, fast thinkers, fast doers, for the most part. We, or rather, I, don't have time to sit around and be sentimental cause we're always onto the next (big?) thing. I'm tryign to slow down, I swear, but I also don't relive the past (except those moments when I do). I'll always be infinitely more interested in the next thing I write or am writing than something from the past. But if you've never read this, or just want to, as kindof a companion to my book Dirty Girls, here goes. Me, circa 2003:

"Dirty"
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

What makes me feel dirty? I know, and yet I don't know. Some things that make me feel dirty are crystal clear to me, while others are more elusive, only knowable in the moment, constantly changing and evolving. There are parts of the puzzle I know all too well, have fantasized and created and recreated over and over again. And there are parts that no amount of detail will ever fully explain, those I wouldn't want to explain even if I could.

But this is what I can explain, what does make sense. I feel dirty when someone tells me I'm dirty - someone who I want to believe knows the truth about me, someone who I want to show my dirtiest, naughtiest, bad girl self to. The truth is I am wicked and dirty and can spend whole days dreaming up explicit fantasies, and often do. I'm often much dirtier in my mind than I am in my daily life, but I don't always feel driven to share these fantasies with my lovers. There's often that underlying fear that they won't be able to handle what I have to say, or I just don't want to go down that road with them, hoarding my fantasies inside my head, waiting for that "perfect" lover to come along. When I do share and it turns out well, I'm pleased, but the possibility of them dismissing my innermost desires as trivial or silly is quite scary. One of the greatest compliments a lover's ever paid to me occurred after a vigorous round of phone sex when he said, pleased, "I didn't know how filthy you really are." I liked that I'd surprised him, that with my dirty mouth and mind I'd shown him a new side of myself, and he liked it.

Being looked at like I'm dirty makes me feel dirty, almost all by itself. I like it when a lover takes a risk and pushes me, coaxing me into possibly emotionally dangerous territory, making me push myself and my own fears and fantasies to the limit. I like being "made," however subtly or unsubtly, to tell things I never thought I'd share with anyone, to be forced to realize how much, deep down, I really want to be manhandled. There are some things that it's hard to verbalize, or even think about, but that I definitely want to happen during a sexual encounter. It's often easiest for me to open up in writing, but in person I freeze up and settle for a fun but not mindblowing experience because I'm too nervous to take a risk. When I find someone who is also willing to take those risks of exposure and daring, I feel more comfortable sharing my own sexual dirty secrets.

For me, sex is best when it's unexpected, when something happens that isn't planned or thought about or really prepared for in any way. Since my mind is always racing, I generally have trouble thinking only one thought at a time, instead wanting to jump to the next thought immediately. So anyone who can get me to stay completely in the moment, to shut off my galloping brain and relax, stay still (mentally and physically), and submit, can have me. I like to be jolted out of my complacency, shown new ways of fucking and relating to someone else, introduced to things that I never would've thought would get me off. I want whole new worlds to open, ones I don't have time to fully comprehend because I'm too busy feeling something - pain, orgasm, fear, excitement.

It's not always so clear-cut, this process of arousal, the things that get me shaking and trembling and wet and wild. It can be unexpected, taking different forms each and every time. What works once might leave me cold and dispassionate in another situation. Sometimes it's a whisper, or even a word, told to me when my eyes are closed and my body is floating in ecstasy. Then, I'm open to anything, and words reverberate through my head and skin, touching parts of me that sometimes never recover. That's when a lover's words become a brand, searing themselves into my skin, forever a part of my erotic self. If in this heightened state of bliss, my lover tells me I'm a dirty whore, a tease, a slut, I lap it up and wait for more. I want to be all those things, not in some absolute objective sense, but for my lover, in that moment. For them, I'll transform myself into whatever they want, to gain their approval, win their affection, be their most special and sexy girl ever. I'm at my best as a lover when all I want, all I know, is pleasing my partner, because always, always, in return I please myself. That's why it throws me for a loop to sleep with someone who can't articulate what they want; I'm left in a hopeless guessing game. Even if I can discern what they want by my own devices, that doesn't fulfill me in the same way as being told what to do, as taking a command and turning it around into a very personalized sex act.

Though I can't precisely define what gets me into this core dirtiness, here are some examples of what triggers it for me. When a lover makes me come while we're fucking, causes me to squirt right there all over his cock, in a moment of unexpected bliss, a pleasant shock to both of us, I am dirty. He has me on my back, legs spread wide, clothes hastily shucked away. He's above me, knees pressed into the carpet, pulling my hair, biting me, fucking me as hard as he can. His sweat is dripping down onto me. He pulls my hair, slaps my face, pinches my nipples. He looks at me, runs his eyes up and down, focuses on my face, my breasts, my cunt, and back to my face, with a look of awe and lust and passion and drama. I don't need any words, just the look that makes me flush far beneath the surface of my skin, the look that sends shivers running throughout my body.

Or this. She tells me to make myself come, something I've never done in a front of a lover before. Her tone is one I haven't heard from her; it's not admiration or a compliment or a question; it's a command. I look up at her breathlessly, so eager to please her, more eager to make her happy than myself (which in turn makes my heart race). She's taken care of that though, by telling me to come, and I hold my breath as I play with my clit. I want to come for her, for me, for us. I look up at her as I play with myself, waiting for her smile, wanting to please her. Or maybe I don't, maybe I want to fail in this task, and have her punish me. Either way, knowing that she is there, watching, waiting, for me, makes me feel dirty and warm and slutty and happy.

When I want to explain my erotic desires to a new lover, I'm often at a loss because mere words are just not enough. Sometimes I feel like my plans will lose some of their magic if I have to spell them out in too much detail. And it's not just what I want that matters; I need them to want what I want too, or else it doesn't work. I don't relish the idea of someone doing something simply to please me, but want my own desires and theirs to mesh.

There's no magic formula for me to get off; it's truly unique every time, even with the same person. That's part of the thrill for me, the way old dramas get played out, new discoveries are made, my body revealing itself to me over and over again, showing off different parts of itself, yearning for new adventures. And I want it to last, not just for an hour or eight, but far beyond that; I want every minute to seem like twenty. People talk about the earth moving, but I don't really care about this planet, or city, or even my room. I want my head, my body, my brain, to spin around, landing somewhere new. That can take seconds or minutes or hours or days, but what I find transcendent is when I emerge from sex feeling like a new person, my mind and body racing, replaying my lovemaking as my own personal porno in my head.

What I want from my lovers is more than just words and acts and orgasms, though it's all those things too. It's a sensation, an overall feeling that I look for, that aids and abets all the words spoken, body parts stroked or pulled or kissed, orgasms reached. I want to be coddled on the one hand, and chastised on (or by) the other. I want to be a little girl, a bad girl, a slut, a dirty whore, a naughty troublemaker, a temptress. I want to be decadent, innocent, coerced, tied up, helpless, fragile, raw. I want to be over her knee, the paddle in her hand, a threat in her voice, uncertain of what words will come out of my mouth or what emotions and sensations will well up inside of me. I want the pain to leap across my skin, to center in my pussy or my ass and spread outwards. I want to not be able to think to not be able to guess or even desire, just to feel, for a few moments. I want sex that surprises me, that's unlike anything I've ever done before, even if it's exactly like something I've done before. Because ultimately, that's why we keep coming back to sex again and again, why some of us concern our lives with it; the fascinating mystery, the beauty and pain and freshness of it, make it continually arousing. Sex is as old as time yet it can be totally new, and can make me feel like an eager and nervous 17-year-old virgin again (albeit with the wisdom of experience, but it's the same feeling).

I want to be at a lover's mercy, wanting more and more, with every cell in my body, but unable to ask for it. When I open my mouth, they put something in - a finger, a tongue, a toy, an ice cube. They fill it up, just like they fill up all the other parts of me that are empty. They fill it with their tongue, and can take that tongue away at any time. Their teeth scamper across my body, searching for the points that will best respond to their bite. Like my nipples, for one. My lover's teeth sink into them like the most tender of meats, mincing, pounding, chewing. Sharp but not fast; I want to feel that exquisite pain for as long as possible, and I want to not be able to escape it, even when I try. I want to be nervous, a little bit scared, uncertain. I want my clit and my pussy to be scared too, to try and anticipate what will happen next and be thrown off guard by a slap or a pinch or a pull. I want the pain of a hand falling full force against my ass, making it burn and seethe, and knowing that there's more waiting for me. I need that fear, that edge, to hover over. I need my lover to act differently with me than they do on the street, to treat me rougher or meaner or more fiercely, anything that distinguishes our sex from our average conversation. I want them to focus only on me, on us, on our pleasure. I want them to make me do things and want things I've never wanted before, to plant wholly new erotic possibilities in my head, to sweep me away and be there to catch me.

I want to be "forced" to do the things I secretly want to do but don't get to do alone, or don't allow myself. I want to feel the ache all over for days afterwards. I want to not be able to think of anything else. When I'm at work, watching tv, cooking dinner, reading, talking on the phone, I want to not be doing those things at all, but instead hearing my lover's voice whisper in my ear as s/he pulls my hair and makes tears form in my eyes. I want to not be able to control the rate of my breathing: pant, pant, gasp, pant, hold breath, pant. I want sex to sweep me away from the rest of my life, to make everything else irrelevant and unnecessary, for a little while, to give myself wholeheartedly and intensely to an all-encompassing passion. Sometimes I want to be deliberately foolish, to be drunk on sex, letting it move me in ways that my rational mind might not agree with.

When I am my dirtiest, sluttiest, naughtiest self, I feel at home, happy, safe, wanted, loved, sexy. I want to stay in that space forever, and even though it doesn't last forever, those moments seem to take up more than their fair share of time, kidnapping my thoughts and seizing my fantasies. They expand, take over, fill me with a warmth that I'm hard pressed to find elsewhere. Those moments can make me cry, for lack of a better way of showing my devotion to them. Every day, I search for those moments, those lovers, those parts of myself that can bring me there. And when I find them, I rejoice.

Dirty Girls party photos (aka, scroll down to the boob cake)

What can I say about the Dirty Girls book party? It was a lot of fun, though the start of it was rocky because I had a rough time prior to it, forgetting my cell phone and hitting traffic in the cab, unable to communicate with the friend I'd promised a ride,and having as close to a panic attack as I get. Anyone who saw me arrive knows I was pretty stricken, and I realized that I'm just not a book party, evnt planning kind of girl. I can fake it, sure, but no more. That will be the last book party for a long while; if Harpercollins wants to do somethnig for Bedding Down, (my winter-themed erotic novella anthology out in December) great, if not, whatever. It just hit me so hard that event planning and all the leadup promotion and preparation severely detracts from my duties as a writer/editor/human being. Like, do I really care if people think I run good events if that comes at the cost of writing? No. I know now I can do it, after 2+ years of In The Flesh. And I like parts of it, but I find that with cancelling authors, so many social networks and places to spread the word, and just too much else to do, something's gotta give. Writing is insanely stressful too, but it's still a calmer kind of stress. I am reliant on myself, and yes, I'm flaky and dumb, but at least I have control of my flakiness and dumbness. I have no real control over cab rides or who shows up or any of the vagaries of planning events.

And sure, you could say I could hire an assistant or get help with it or not stress over it so much, but I'm too much of a control freak to do that. So at least I can be safe in the knowledge that I only have to have those mini panic attacks for aslong as I'm running In The Flesh, which probably won't be after this year, though we'll see. (I am thrilled to announce that Sexography author Carly Milne (more on her and her RAINN fundraising campaign later) is starting In The Flesh LA, kicking off May 29th with me and famus porn star guests at Freddy and Eddy.) That being said, I had a fabulous time once it got started. THANK YOU to everyone who showed up. So many wonderful friends were in attendance - Heidi, Nichelle, Twanna A. Hines, Michael Malice, Christen Clifford, and others. I got to feed people cake which was awesome, and it was great to have a big cake, especially such a cool one, for once (no offense to my beloved cupcakes.

Sutra Lounge was an amazing, intimate, gorgeous venue, with a throne-like chair for us to sit on and drink specials and loveliness. Between 40 and 50 people showed up and listened raptly as I read along with Lillian Ann Slugocki, Suki Bishop, Tsaurah Litzky, and Sofia Quintero. Then I got to cut the boob cake from Moist and Tasty, which had thick fondant as the "skin" and yummy chocolate cake with a light layer of frosting beneath. I sold out all my copies of the book and we signed autographs, primped and posed for photographer Stacie Joy, and chattered away. At the very end of the night, Marie Lyn Bernard (who is reading at In The Flesh on Thursday along with Sofia Quintero) showed up. See my entire photo set here


L to R: Lillian Ann Slugocki, Sofia Quintero, Suki Bishop, Rachel Kramer Bussel

Lillian Ann Slugocki read from "Trucky Stop Cinderella:"



Suki Bishop read from "Flight:"



Tsaurah Litzky read from "Lily:"



Sofia Quintero read from "El Mar de Encanto:"



The cake was amazing:



My friend Tess was sporting amazing cleavage to match the cake:

Dirty Girls NYC book party tonight!

I'm having a super fun, free book party tonight, April 10th, for my brand-new anthology with 27 HOT stories, Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women, from 7 - 9 pm in NYC at Sutra Lounge, 16 First Avenue off First Street, Free

There will be boob cake to honor the nipple on the book's cover from Moist and Tasty, readings by me (Rachel Kramer Bussel) and contributors Tsaurah Litzky, Sofia Quintero, Lillian Ann Slugocki and Suki Bishop. Plus drink specials and books for sale!

See you there! If you can't make it, the book is available for sale on Amazon or directly from me, autographed, $14 including shipping (U.S.), email me for details.

My controversial, nipple-baring Dirty Girls book cover

I had no idea that the book cover for Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women (which will be out in April, but has its very own blog!), which I've been drooling over since I first saw it, would be so controversial. But apparently it is, as it's been singled out by erotica author Mathilde Madden over at Lust Bites:

And, look, while we’re celebrating male beauty can I just say, what the fuck is up with the book covers of erotica books for women that they have naked chicks on the covers? This book cover baffles me. There, are more like this, of course - girlie covers of erotica books - but this one seems so very FHM. Could they not find a picture of someone the gender the majority of women fantasise about the majority of the time?...

I mean god forbid a women's erotica book should be sold by *gasp* objectifying men. I know some women are into women. And sure women are pretty (though not as pretty as men.) But we know this isn't what this is about. In fact, whenever I see a cover like that I feel damn certain the book isn't really aimed at women at all. And it's not as if the world is short of pretty pictures of women - for those who like looking at pretty pictures of women.

I could let this go, and it’s not that I’m personally offended, because I didn’t pick the cover (though I do love it). But I think there’s a bigger point that needs to be made: when you read erotica, you can read it in numerous ways, and two of the varying ways are as either party in the story. Let’s say there’s a man and a woman in a given erotica story (and TRUST ME, in Dirty Girls there’s plenty of sex that involves more than two people, and not all of them heterosexual). I like the fact that I can identify with, for example, my own protagonist in “Icy Hot,” who seduces a stranger on a boiling hot day in a bodega, all over a bag of ice. But I could also, even though he’s really the object and not the subject of the story, identify with the guy who has this woman practically jumping on him and following him home so he can tease her with ice cubes all over her body. As readers, we get to identify with either, or both, of those people.

I’ve plenty of submissive types tell me they loved He’s on Top and/or She’s on Top, because even though the stories were told from the tops’ POVs, they also encompassed the bottoms’ needs and desires. I read both ways, depending on the story, but I have to say, I personally tend to be drawn to images of women, even though I’m attracted to both men and women.

Also, the book’s subtitle is “erotica for women,” and the stories are written by women, and it’s being published by a feminist press, so if you ask me, putting a man on the cover would’ve been totally antithetical to what the book is ostensibly about. I actually would probably feel really uncomfortable having a man on my book cover…unless my book’s main character was a guy.

This reminds me over another crazy-hot cover, Violet Blue’s Best Women’s Erotica 2008, (pictured below) for which I broke my self-imposed no-reading-erotica-on-the-subway, and it was so worth it. I’ll post more about it when I’m done, but buy it and treasure it for Violet’s intro, which is worth the price of the book alone, it’s that hot but also heartfelt. Anyway, I was studying the cover because I think it’s incredibly hot. Book covers have tough jobs; they have to grab the reader, they have to encapsulate what an entire book is about with a single (usually) image. It’s a tough balance, especially with erotica, because clearly, if someone is turned off from that image, if the model is too ____ for their taste, they may walk away from a book whose insides would make them rush off to get their hands down their pants (or up their skirts) ASAP.



I don’t think it’s a conspiracy to keep hot, shirtless men off book covers, but more a business decisionæthat women want to see women. Now, I’m not saying there can’t be a sexist angle to this. I was talking about something related to this subject recently, though can’t recall exactly what it was, and someone said, “Well, women are just hotter, right?” I think that’s insulting to everyone; there are, of course, standards of beauty, but I think there are multiple standards. It’s why the whole CWILF/FLILF thing kinda irks me, because basically what’s being put out there is that nobody on earth would ever want to fuck/fantasize about these men. Well, news flash, somebody does. But I think what book covers are trying to tap into is a fantasy of someone we’d like to be, or get to know.

When I see the Dirty Girls cover, I see a woman who’s bold and daring enough to stare right back at the camera, even with her clothes off. To claim her nudity, her sexuality, to defy that dreadful phrase I had to read ad nauseam as a women’s studies major, “the male gaze.” I say that not because that gaze doesn’t exist, but because I think that in some circles, feminist/women’s studies almost privileges it too much. We are in an era where we all get to gaze, and this woman is gazing right back at whoever’s looking at her. She’s sexualized and sexual.

One of the women I asked to blurb the book (I’m waiting for her blurb right now!) is Burning Angel superstar Joanna Angel, because I think she embodies that particular form of out-there exhibitionism. It’s a pretty bold, in-your-face, unapologetic, horny, yet also soulful and sensual way of being. Or, as I write in the introduction to Dirty Girls, which you can read in its entirety here:

The women writing here don’t apologize for being dirty. They know who and what they want and they go after the objects of their affection in all kinds of different ways. Reading this collection_whether from start to finish or skipping around to your favorite authors or the most eye-catching titles_will give you a glimpse into what makes women wet, what makes us feel and act dirty, what makes us slick our lips and spread our legs. Maybe, just maybe, their stories attempt to answer Freud’s infamously infuriating query: “What do women want?” To judge by the twenty-seven tales you hold in your hand, they want to be worshiped, they want to be ordered around, they want to be sent spinning into ecstasy and then come crashing back down. They want strangers bearing ice cubes on a hot day, and to be a party favor passed around among guests. They want hot vacation sex, visits to peep shows, and a man who’ll lick stinky cheese off their boots. They want power, and they want to give up power. They want sex at the office and in the great outdoors and on trains and airplanes. They want sex with the whole United States of America (or, at least, part of it). They want to be wooed, seduced, flirted with, taken. They want men, women, and sometimes both at the same time.

And hey, while we’re on the topic of hot book covers, I must throw in one more, for Rubber Sex, out in May, cause I’m seeing it for the very first time:



See also Smart Bitches Who Read Trashy Books, on book covers.

I’d love to hear what you think (here or at rachelkb at gmail.com) about this topic, what your favorite erotica book covers are, and what makes you pick up (or put own) a given erotica book. And whatever you like about a book cover, I wish you happy reading once you get to what's inside.