Publishers Weekly praises my female fantasy erotica anthology Hungry for More!

I was looking up something else about Hungry for More and found this mostly wonderful review from Publishers Weekly! I'm working on a post listing all 21 fantasies to be found in the book, but for now, I'll share this - and there's another book of fantasy erotica in the works too. I must also say that "Jailbait Torch Song" is one of my favorite stories I've ever published in all 50+ anthologies, because it takes a taboo topic and makes it vivid and real and tender and sweet and sexy all at once. I know it will push buttons, but those are about social norms, and if erotica is good at anything, it should be questioning social norms and giving readers something to think about as well as entertain and arouse them. In other things I love about this book: the title and story in "Kitchen Slut." Join me for 2 free readings from the book (and other stories too from The Big Book of Submission and The Big Book of Orgasms) on Saturday, September 6 from 3-4:30 at Center for Sex Positive Culture Annex, 1608 15th Ave. W., and Wednesday, September 10th 7:30-9 pm at sex toy store She Bop, 909 N. Beech Street, Portland, Oregon, where the renowned Tiffany Reisz, author of The Original Sinners series, will read her m/m baseball erotica story "Bringing the Heat."

Twenty-one tales of women pursuing and getting what they want make up this steamy collection. Veteran editor Bussel touches on a variety of common fantasies, including threesomes and moresomes, bondage, and voyeurism. Olivia Archer’s “Kitchen Slut,” about a woman aroused by kitchen utensils, is a surprising treat. Jeremy Edwards’s “Tickle Day,” is delightfully playful while Valerie Alexander’s “Jailbait Torch Song” is unexpectedly poignant. Brandy Fox’s “Organically Grown” has a clever twist, though the build-up is bland. On the downside, Greta Christina’s “Craig’s List” reads like a summary of someone else’s spicy story, and Rose de Fer’s “The Instructor” blurs consent issues enough to leave readers questioning its presence in the collection. With many more hits than misses, all long enough to titillate and short enough to leave the reader craving more, this is a satisfying feast for the erotica fan.

Purchase Hungry for More:

Amazon

Bn.com

Kindle ebook

Nook ebook 

Powells

Books-a-Million

iBooks

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore)

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Germany

Cleis Press

Introduction: Getting Explicit

Submissive Jacqueline Applebee
Happy Endings Giselle Renarde
Craig’s List Greta Christina
Bringing the Heat Tiffany Reisz
Madam Secretary Jaye Markham
Kitchen Slut Olivia Archer
Just Once Jocelyn Dex
Boat Rocking D. L. King
The Sleeper’s Beauty Jade A. Waters
Upstairs at the Ava DelovelyOlive
Organically Grown Brandy Fox
The Room of Guarantees Jessica Lennox
Redrawing the Lines Bren Emile
Tickle Day Jeremy Edwards
Relief Katya Harris
Jailbait Torch Song Valerie Alexander
Red Lipstick Erzabet Bishop
Something Sleazy Elizabeth Coldwell
The Instructor Rose de Fer
My Pillar-Box Red Cock Tilly Hunter
A First Time for Everything Rachel Kramer Bussel

Introduction: Getting Explicit

When we fantasize, we give ourselves space to live out the naughtiest acts we can imagine. For me, fantasizing is like taking a trip to another world, where I can be as wanton, selfish and depraved as I like—and for that matter, that’s exactly what erotica writing does for me as well.

Fantasies don’t follow the rules, whether the ones society has set for us—and if you’re a woman, our culture has plenty of sex rules to rein you in—or the ones we’ve set for ourselves. Anything—and everything—goes. In the twenty-one stories in this book, I’ve tried to include both common and unusual fantasies, ones that speak to things you might do or want to do, ones that might unnerve you, ones that touch the edges of our most cherished taboos.

The title Hungry for More has multiple meanings—these characters do indeed want more, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more sex just to have more sex. Getting off isn’t a numbers game to these characters; it’s about accessing more pleasure, pushing more boundaries, trying new things, sometimes with new partners. Even when they get more of whatever it is they crave, they’re still hungry, because fulfilling one fantasy isn’t the end of their pleasure, but the beginning of a new and grand adventure.

The common thread here, whether the characters are having sex with strangers from Craig’s List, the organic produce clerk or the secretary of state, is that these women are unabashed in their desires. They may recognize that others might look at them askance, as in Valerie Alexander’s “Jailbait Torch Song,” but they follow through anyway, not letting anyone stop them from experiencing the ultimate thrill of playing out a dirty dream that’s often followed them through lovers, relationships and plenty of orgasms. These women often surprise their lovers with their adamant affirmations of lust, but they quickly realize the thrills to be found in venturing beyond their usual erotic boundaries.

The women in these pages know fantasies have a way of finding us, even—or especially—when we try to disavow them. They don’t care about propriety, reputations or acceptability. These fantasies—of public sex, BDSM, strap-on play, lesbian encounters, bukkake, watching male lovers and much more—speak so loudly they cannot be ignored. They insist on being heard, seen, touched. While in real life we may keep our most treasured fantasies tucked away for our most secret selves, in these tales, women’s fantasies are front and center, every explicit act laid bare. Luckily, here, in a book that perhaps you’ll enjoy in bed, or the bath, or wherever you do your erotic reading, you get to watch—and live vicariously through these brazen, taboo-busting women, who are willing to go all the way in the name of living out whatever wild, wicked scenarios their lustiest selves have dreamt up. I invite you to come along for the ride.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
Red Bank, New Jersey

Exciting news: San Francisco reading and Publishers Weekly review of The Big Book of Orgasms

I'm very excited to share the news that I'll be heading to San Francisco for a reading from The Big Book of Orgasms: 69 Sexy Stories, featuring me and 8 other contributors (and possibly a few more), many of whom are reading for the first time. If you're not in San Francisco but know someone who is who'd like a night of free orgasmic erotica read to them, please pass this on. The official details are on Facebook as well as below.

November 6, 6:30 pm, free
The Big Book of Orgasms reading in San Francisco
The Big Book of Orgasms: 69 Sexy Stories (Cleis Press) is editor Rachel Kramer Bussel's latest and greatest erotica anthology. This climactic collection of pansexual short shorts are perfect for bedtime reading to a lover or on your own. Whether getting off from exhibitionism, voyeurism, hot wax, dirty talk or a very special pair of blue jeans, the characters in The Big Book of Orgasms go all out for the Big O. From vanilla to kinky, and everything in between, there's something for all erotic readers here. At this special reading, Bussel will be joined by contributors Lily K. Cho, Malin James, Crystal Jordan, Sinclair Sexsmith, Donna George Storey, B.D. Swain, Virgie Tovar, Jade A. Waters and Xan West for an evening of steamy stories that's sure to leave you hot and bothered.
Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street (at Sacramento Street), San Francisco, 415-345-0400


I didn't want to look too dorky, but my smile should stretch all the way across my face to encapsulate how excited I am about this book!

I also had a "pinch me" moment when I saw that Publishers Weekly gave The Big Book of Orgasms such a glowing review (I'm cutting and pasting but the authors' names should be Cecilia Tan and Jade A. Waters):

Erotic editor Bussel (Baby Got Back) proves less is more in this collection of nibble-size erotic stories that are just long enough to fuel the imagination. There is something for every mood—funny, kinky, touching, spontaneous, and even vengeful. In Thomas S. Roche’s “How You Christen a Bed,” the surprising delight is in the woman’s postorgasmic statement. Celicia Tan’s “Her Lover Is a Flame” and Bussel’s own “I’m on Fire” give a new meaning to hot sex. Riley Shane’s “Feast for the Senses” entertains with sensory pleasure. Evoë Thorne’s lovely “Squirt” illustrates how longtime partners avoid lesbian bed death. An unused toy comes to life with a proper lover in Jade A. Wata’s “The Flogger.” Everyone will find something to appreciate here, and all the stories are easy to read as they titillate and entertain. (Nov.)

We are off to a brilliant start and any day now the book should be in stock online! Thank you so much - I believe so strongly in this book and am looking into more events, online and off, and am handing out postcards and talking it up everywhere I go. This is not just "the big book" of orgasms but my big book, one I feel good about staking my career on. I think it's also one of the biggest bargains around: at $12.12 from Amazon, that works out to just under 18 cents a story! Follow us @BigBookofOrgasm on Twitter and read excerpts (all of them are coming soon!) on Tumblr.


Bonus photo from last night. L to R: Nicole Audrey Spector, Kim Triedman, Vica Miller, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Liesl Schillinger. I highly recommend signing up for Vica Miller Literary Salons - they rock and are free!).

Book review gratitude and inspiration: Best Bondage Erotica 2012 and Only You: Erotic Romance for Women

Sometimes I need a little good news to push me through the tough editorial times, though I'm thankful for a few days in snowy New York to get my bearings, clean/unearth/declutter, catch up on old stories and brainstorm new ones (and browse my favorite fashion sites with the excuse of incorporating them) and file the last two books I'm contracted to do (I hope there will be more at some point, but I'm trying this radical new thing of not to get too crazily ahead of myself, lest I trip and ruin myself for the now, as I've done, oh, several hundred times before), my true sex essay anthology and my book of erotic short stories, both for Cleis Press. Here are two reviews from places I hold in high esteem: Good Vibrations and Publishers Weekly (perhaps a first for me, or if not, a rarity, so I feel special and bigtime), respectively.


Best Bondage Erotica 2012

reviewed at Good Vibrations (click to read the whole review, with shoutouts to "A Night at the Opera" by Elizabeth Coldwell, "Knot Alone" by Kathleen Tudor and "Laced" by Elizabeth Silver):

The stories in this collection balance the swirling apprehension, arousal and curiosity about one’s own limits that makes BDSM so thrilling and sexy. ...For kinksters who are new to erotica, or simply just want a new collection to peruse for ideas and stimulation, Best Bondage Erotica 2012 is a handy way of exploring fantasy and sexuality through literature. Use it to brainstorm new ideas, provoke conversations with your partners, or simply read it as a bedtime story that will do anything but put you to sleep. Your mind can paint a picture of submission, one sketched by the writers in this collection and fleshed out fully by the reader – you.

Order Best Bondage Erotica 2012 from:

Amazon

Kindle ebook

Barnes & Noble

Nook ebook

Powell's

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore)

Books-a-Million

Cleis Press


Only You: Erotic Romance for Women

reviewed by Publishers Weekly

Bussel (Anything for You: Erotica for Kinky Couples) has assembled a solid collection of 20 sexy, romantic tales featuring male/female couples at different stages of their relationships, all taking different, intriguing routes to their happy endings. Issue-driven stories are some of the hottest and most thought-provoking. A woman’s waning physical desire is renewed when her husband unexpectedly spanks her in Giselle Renarde’s “Forgotten Bodies.” A couple embrace the anger inextricable from their sex life in Kristina Wright’s “The Love We Make.” A woman who thinks her vulva is ugly meets a man who finds it incredibly sexy in K D Grace’s “Unfolding.” Thirtyish Ruthie falls for Sol, who’s 75, in Anna Watson’s “September Song.” Other standouts introduce sexy politicians (Kate Dominic’s “Republicans Don’t Like”), the parents of triplets (Lolita Lopez’s “Mom’s Night Out”), and a middle-aged woman who deflowers her younger lover (Bussel’s own “For the Very First Time”). The couples are not terribly diverse in race, class, or culture, but their stories are otherwise wide-ranging enough to have fairly broad appeal.

The money shot of the Publishers Weekly erotica article

I'm thrilled to be quoted in Publishers Weekly's big article "Erotica--Fanning the Flames" and mentioned a few times (I also have a story in the 2011 Seal Press anthology Nice Girls, Naughty Sex) but what I Thought was the money shot, as an editor concerned about the bottom line, was:

And while short stories have been a popular form of erotica for years, it's these very-short-shorts (anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand words) that are gaining ground. Cleis Press publisher Brenda Knight, who calls them "erotica for the ADD generation," says she first noticed the trend when Alison Tyler's Frenzy: 60 Stories of Sudden Sex (2008) sold 500 copies a week for a steady six months. Last month, during Cleis's Naked Reader Book Club—held online and in partnership with sex toys retailer Edenfantasy.com—readers were unequivocal in their appreciation for the short-short story. (Also, last month Cleis published Alison Tyler's follow-up quickie collection, Got a Minute? 60 Second Erotica.)

In March 2011, Cleis will release The Big Book of Quickies, edited by popular erotica editor (and author) Rachel Kramer Bussel, who says she received more submissions for this title than for any previous anthology: "I got a huge range of styles and perspectives." Writers may have been empowered by the 1,200-word limit, she muses, although she believes that condensing an erotic story into so few sentences is actually more challenging.

If any of my books sold even 250 books a week, my finances would be very, very different, is all I can say. Gonna put a lot of effort and cash into pimping out The Big Book of Quickies next year as a Valentine's Day book and, well, a boo kof 69 short stories, about 45 more than I usually publish.

In the meantime, the paparazzi are lined up for August 19th's Summer Sex/Sex on the Beach Night at In The Flesh Reading Series and we're giving away waterproof vibrators from EdenFantasys! Dress up and join us!

Mention in Publishers Weekly!

This Publishers Weekly article talks about "tech makeovers" and social media use by two indie bookstores, Harvard Book Store and The Booksmith in San Francisco, where I did the Best Sex Writing 2009 reading and video in February.

Other changes involve serving emerging writers better. For example, The Booksmith dedicated the month of January to new writers and has begun posting author interviews online, as well as listing some store events. “None of these ideas helps sell books,” Madan acknowledges. “It’s more about having a larger conversation with your community.” Not that he’s unhappy when book sales result, as they did from a YouTube posting by erotica writer Rachel Kramer Bussel, who pointed out her favorite sexy titles (and chocolate) at the store (www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRiaXX9_y0s).

“Most bookstores struggle in knowing how to use technology effectively, including us. There is no bookstore, with the exception of Powell’s, that uses the Web well,” Madan says. “We believe that the days when bookstores could ignore the Web are over, as are the days of having boring, static sites that accompany excuses like 'we only use our Web site for informational purposes.’ ” Next month, he and Evans plan to launch a new site that makes better use of social platforms to build a broader, ongoing conversation with readers and writers. They are also creating a new staff position, Web marketer.

And you can watch the video here:

My name in Publishers Weekly, and Mistress Matisse is not a feminist

This is kindof a "I never thought it would happen to me..." story because Publishers Weekly has never reviewed any of my books. I had thought with Dirty Girls, my first book with pre-publication galleys, they would, but they didn't. Guess if that's what I want I've gotta stop with the erotica. Am I bitter? Okay, a little. I hate that erotica, and books by small presses, are so marginalized.

I wish mine sold better, and I wish certain megachain bookstores had erotica sections. I wish a lot of things but can't change them in any way, except as to making decisions about what type of stuff I publish. For now, all I know how to do is erotica, but I do want to branch out, while keeping editing books (and keeping learning how to properly promote and market them). I feel like with every book, it's a huge opportunity to learn how to do it right, do it better, learn what money is well-spent, and what isn't. So I'm in the process of figuring all that out, and seeing where it takes me.

Anyway, Yes Means Yes has not only sold out of its first printing (10,000 copies!!!!) in like 2 months, but just got a starred review in PW. Congratulations Jessica and Jaclyn. There's at least one piece in there on my shortlist for Best Sex Writing 2010. It's really a coup for these editors, but I was happy to see my piece get a mention.



Here's the review (via Jaclyn Friedman's email):

Yes Means Yes! : Visions of Female Sexual Power & A World Without Rape
Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti. Seal, $15.95 (256p) ISBN 9781580052573
Activists and writers Friedman and Valenti (He's a Stud, She's a Slut) deliver an extraordinary essay compilation focusing on the struggle to stop rape in the U.S. and the importance of sexual identity and ownership. Early on, Thomas MacAulay Millar and Rachel Kramer Bussel explain how the "no means no" concept (sexual consent equals the absence of no) must be rejected in favor of a "yes means yes" mentality: the idea that consent means affirmative participation in the act itself, a broader definition that better protects women while encouraging power over—not fear of—personal sexual identity. Other topics include body image and self-esteem issues as well as incest, the dangers faced by female immigrants and the public perception of rape; in "Trial by Media," Samhita Mukhopadhyay looks at the Duke Lacrosse rape case and finds the media acting in the tradition of slavery by commodifying the young, female African-American body. Though surprisingly entertaining throughout, with no shortage of wit or humor, unexpected topics (Friedman on enjoying sex, transsexual writer Julia Serano on the mixed cultural messages that lead "nice guys" to sexual aggression) keep the book dynamic. Sure to empower and inform, this is an important and inspiring read for assault survivors, educators, activists, experts and those on a path to self discovery. (Starred)

I was intrigued by Mistress Morgana's post about her not being a feminist, and thankful for it. It reminded me to live up to what I believe in, which is to be as broad-minded as possible. I hate the idea of only writing "to" or "for" others who identify as feminist, and I think it's obnoxious, condescending and disturbing to assume that other people, especially women, somehow, in some essentialist way "are" feminists just because they...[insert supposedly feminist action or belief]

I quoted Mistress Matisse because her column said what I was trying to say, but so much more eloquently. Here's part of her post:


People ask me, "Are you a feminist?" And I usually say something like, "Do you think I am?"

Sometimes they say, "Oh yes, definitely!"

And I smile and say "All right then, I am."

Sometimes they say "No! Women like you are antithetical to feminism."

And I shrug and say, "Then we don't have anything else to talk about, do we?"

It's a way of identifying and can't be placed onto someone. Also, um, news flash: feminists and non-feminists can, and often do, agree on lots of things. A super simplistic way of saying it from my addled almost-flu-ed out mind, but I wanted to say it. I would never want to be thought of as foisting my views on anyone else and honestly don't really care whether any given person identifies as a feminist. I think sometimes so much wasted time and effort is spent trying to get people to simply say the word, rather than focusing on what we do agree on. I need to reread my copy of Paula Kamen's excellent book Feminist Fatale for more on that.

I am not a sex educator. Pass it on.

I get the people will persist in calling you things that may or may not apply, but I am a writer. And, yes, an editor and a blogger. But one thing I am not and have never purported to be is a sex educator. Just because it's on Wikipedia doesn't mean it's true.

That being said, since my books never get reviewed there (but I hope some future projects will!), I'm thrilled to see my name mentioned in Publishers Weekly. But they are wrong on that count, sorry.

I will have more info on my Ravenous Romance e-book The Lust Chronicles (only $4.99!!) soon, probably next week, or hop on over to my Flickr account (and yes, I know it may be blocked, that's all Flickr, not me, just click through) and see the cover I hated and the one I lobbied for that is now the final cover, plus the Table of Contents.

I'm busy getting ready for my in-and-out trip to San Francisco. That just reminded me that I must make sure to get a burger at In-N-Out. Because I like hamburgers so much I even write erotica about them (and I used to be vegan!).