Autographed copies of Best Sex Writing 2013 and Twice the Pleasure now available

Awesome independent bookstore WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, now has autographed copies of Best Sex Writing 2013, my hot off the press anthology featuring Jonathan Lethem, Patrick Califia, guest judge Carol Queen, Madison Young and many others. You can also get an autographed copy of Best Sex Writing 2013 or Twice the Pleasure: Bisexual Women's Erotica directly from me (US only) by sending $14 via Paypal to rkbenterprises2012 at gmail.com and including your name and mailing address (if you want it autographed to someone other than you, just let me know). Thanks! Snapped last night at our WORD "Is Feminism Sexy?" panel:

I'm on the "Is Feminism Sexy?" panel tonight at WORD, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Come join me and these wonderful panelists for "Is Feminism Sexy?" at one of my favorite bookstores, WORD, in Greenpoint, Brooklyn tonight, 126 Franklin Street, off the G train. It's my last Brooklyn event as a Brooklyn resident (awww...NJ better have some awesome bookstores!) and hot off the press copies of Best Sex Writing 2013 will be for sale. Learn more at The Sexy Feminist. Here's the official Facebook invite.

[Description] Sexy Feminism’s Jennifer Armstrong will be discussing what feminism means to young women today with erotica writer/editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, The Frisky blogger Julie Gerstein, SexyFeminist.com contributor Britt Gambino, and feminist media activist Jamia A. Wilson.

In Sexy Feminism, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Heather Wood Rudulph offer simple ways for busy, young women to improve every aspect of their own lives by following feminist principles. With dozens of ways to take action, Sexy Feminism explains how feminism helps women get what they want (and does not, contrary to many reports, ruin anyone’s chances at love, success, sex, beauty, or style). It guides young women toward finding their own brand of feminism and using it to improve their lives and the world.

Free wine, cheese, haiku and single girls tonight at WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Firstly, Happy National Whipped Cream Day! Yes, it's today.

Join me tonight at 7 at 126 Franklin Street (G train) at WORD in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with Anna David and Beth Griffenhagen. Free wine and cheese and skin care products!







I just got Beth's book Haiku for the Single Girl and it's hysterical! I have SO many favorites, among them:

On my kitchen floor
We fucked loudly, more than once.
Take that, married friends!

I like trysts with guys
From other countries. It's like
Stamping your passport!

Dear Future Husband,
Hope you like a.m. blow jobs
And pizza. Call me!

My latest at Open Salon: Why I Love Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD

"Why I Love Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD! It's not just for the pencils, I promise:

Tonight in Greenpoint: Moderating Men Undressed panel

Like free wine, amazing authors, and discussions of sexuality and literature? Then join us tonight at Greenpoint, Brooklyn's amazing indie bookstore WORD (bonus: signed copies of Women in Lust will also be for sale). Cris Mazza who co-edited the original Chick Lit way the hell back in the day is one of the co-editors of this wonderful book, along with Stacy Bierlein, Kat Meads, and In The Flesh alum and Slut Lullabies author Gina Frangello, who very kindly asked me to moderate this event, with a foreword by Steve Almond.



Female writers discuss writing the male sexual experience in a panel featuring contributors from the new anthology Men Undressed. Panelists Allison Amend, Nava Renek, and Elizabeth Searle will be in conversation with erotica author Rachel Kramer Bussel, who will also lead an audience Q&A.
Free, October 19, 7-8 pm, WORD, 126 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (G train to Greenpoint Avenue)

Official description:

From D. H. Lawrence to Philip Roth, acclaimed male writers have depicted sex from the perspective of female characters. Now, women writers from Aimee Bender to Jennifer Egan engage in provocative fictional cross-dressing, exploring sexuality from the male point of view. With a foreword by Steve Almond, this provocative collection includes work from twenty-six women in all, including Bender, Egan, Susan Minot, Elizabeth Benedict, Alicia Erian, and Diane Williams. Edited by Gina Frangello, Stacy Bierlein, Cris Mazza and Kat Meads—four women with a great deal of experience as editors (Other Voices Magazine, OV Books, anthologies) and authors.

I talk romance and erotica on the Bookrageous podcast

Click here to hear me talk about being a book lover, favorite books and the romance and erotica genres with In The Flesh alum Sarah Wendell of the wonderful blog Smart Bitches Trashy Books, along with hosts Rebecca Schinsky of The Book Lady and Jenn Northington of JennIRL (also events manager at WORD). I recorded my part at Greenpoint, Brooklyn extremely excellent indie bookstore WORD, where I'll be in the audience being a fangirl getting my Sarah MacLean and Kieran Kramer books signed April 27th.

Passion reading photos!

Check out the entire set from last night at WORD by Laura Boyd on Flickr.


L to R: Sarah MacLean, Donna George Storey, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Emerald, Monica Day



Kumquat Cupcakery made me cupcakes to match my book cover and the peppermint ones were SOOOOO good. It tasted like the inside of a York peppermint patty in frosting form!



I actually really like the black and white ones:

Sexy tights for tonight's birthday Passion reading!

Join us at WORD, 126 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (G to Greenpoint) tonight for free cupcakes and buttons and sexiness! Call WORD at 718-383-0096 if you need help finding it.

Click here for excerpts from all the stories.

Please join me, and if you can’t, please tell your NYC friends to join me as well as my authors who are coming in from Berkeley, California and Washington, DC, to celebrate my 35th birthday with free cupcakes and a steamy, sensual reading from my brand-new anthology Passion: Erotic Romance for Women!

November 11, 7-8:30 pm
Passion reading and Rachel’s 35th birthday celebration
Join Passion: Erotic Romance for Women editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Monica Day, Emerald and Donna George Storey, along with historical romance author Sarah MacLean (Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord) at Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore Word for readings, discussion, signing and free cupcakes to celebrate Rachel turning 35. Free Passion buttons will be given out to all attendees.
Word, 126 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (G to Greenpoint Avenue)

Facebook invite

Historical romance author Sarah MacLean joins Passion reading November 11th with free cupcakes!

I'm thrilled to share the news that romance author Sarah MacLean will be joining us on November 11th at 7 pm at Greenpoint, Brooklyn bookstore Word for my 35th birthday Passion reading, with free cupcakes from mini cupcake company Kumquat Cupcakery. I'm working out the flavors now but they will be red and white to match the cover of Passion.

official Facebook invite if you want to pass the word along.

November 11, 7 pm
Passion: Erotic Romance for Women and Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord reading
Word, 126 Franklin Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn (G to Greenpoint Avenue)

Join Passion: Erotic Romance for Women editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Emerald and Donna George Storey, plus historical romance author Sarah MacLean (Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord) at Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore Word for readings, discussion, signing and free Kumquat Cupcakery cupcakes to celebrate Rachel turning 35. Free Passion buttons will be given out to all attendees.



By the way, Passion just came out this week! Click on the cover above to read the introduction. I have room left on the November virtual book tour if any bloggers want to join - just email passionateantho at gmail.com with "Book Tour" in subject line and your URL and name and mailing address in the body.

I actually met Sarah for the first time at Word and her first novel Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake was my first foray into historical romance in a long time and I loved it. I'll write more about it later, and why I think it's a feminist romance novel. I'll add my review of it to the end of this post, but first I want to share her bio and the cover of her new book, which you can hear her read from at Word and get a signed copy, Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord. Do visit her blog daily as she's doing some fun guest posts around the theme of Ten Ways plus book giveaways - I'm cribbing from those posts on which historical romance authors I should be reading!





New York Times and USA Today bestselling author SARAH MacLEAN grew up in Rhode Island, obsessed with historical romance. Her love of all things historical helped to earn her degrees from Smith College and Harvard University before she finally set pen to paper and wrote her first book. Sarah now lives in Brooklyn with her husband, their dog, and a ridiculously large collection of romance novels. She is the author of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake and her latest, Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord. Please visit her at www.macleanspace.com.

Official book blurb from Sarah's site:

Ten Ways... is the follow-up to the New York Times & USA Today bestselling Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, and the second in a trio of Regency-set historicals about the Marquess of Ralston, his twin brother, and their half-sister:

"Lord Nicholas is a paragon of manhood. And his eyes, Dear Reader! So blue!”
Pearls & Pelisses, June 1823

Since being named on of London’s "Lords to Land" by a popular ladies’ magazine, Nicholas St. John has been relentlessly pursued by every matrimony-minded female in the ton. So when an opportunity to escape fashionable society presents itself, he eagerly jumps—only to land in the path of the most determined, damnably delicious woman he’s ever met! The daughter of a titled wastrel,

Lady Isabel Townsend has too many secrets and too little money. Though used to taking care of herself quite handily, her father’s recent passing has left Isabel at sea and in need of outside help to protect her young brother’s birthright. The sinfully handsome, eminently eligible Lord Nicholas could be the very salvation she seeks.

But the lady must be wary and not do anything reckless…like falling madly, passionately in love.

My review of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake, available in bookstores now. Ten Ways will be released October 26th from Avon. Read lots more reviews on Amazon



I do not read much historical romance but saw Sarah MacLean speak on a panel about romance writing and liked the premise of this book so I tried it and...I loved it! Callie's list of 9 rules she wants to break speak to the restrictions on women in society of her time, and how the single woman was basically left to simply husband hunt. That is not what Callie (Calpurnia) wants, and while she is not sitting around pining for Ralston, she knows in her heart that she loves him and won't settle for anything less. In the meantime, she is willing to go out of her way and risk her reputation to check off the items on her list, perhaps not quite realizing the risks involved and what she's setting in motion. MacLean adds enough twists, and paints Callie as both the perfect foil for rake Ralston as well as someone generally pitied by many in her social circle, as evidenced by the wager placed on who will marry her first. Throughout, Callie is feisty, headstrong and, most of all, holding out for true love, even when it means rejecting the only man she has ever loved. This is a clever romance that captures how each of its protagonists are changed by the experience of falling in love, even when they don't realize it. I'd recommend it to others who are newcomers, or even skeptics, when it comes to historicals, as well as anyone looking for a sensual, steamy romance.

I'm turning 35! Mark your calendars for a cupcake-filled Passion reading/celebration November 11

Don't say I didn't warn you! I not only will have free cupcakes and my hot-off-the-press anthology Passion: Erotic Romance for Women, I'm reading with special out of town guests, two of my favorite erotica writers (and both In The Flesh alums), Donna George Storey, in from Berkeley, California, and Emerald, in from Washington, DC, on November 11th at independent bookstore Word, where I had a great reading last year, at 126 Franklin Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Don't miss it!

You can pre-order Passion now - coming soon, buttons and postcards! And galleys if you're press looking to cover it.

Writers: you can submit now to my 2011 anthology Obsessed: Erotic Romance for Women. I'm especially looking for authors of erotic romance and romance novels, so I'm prowling bookstores and websites for authors to invite to submit.



Table of Contents

Introduction: Getting Passionate

Big Bed Sex by Donna George Storey
My Dark Knight Jacqueline Applebee
Dear in the Headlights Angela Caperton
The Cherry Orchard Wickham Boyle
Autumn Suite Suzanne V. Slate
Contentions Isabelle Gray
The Silver Belt Lana Fox
Five Senses Rachel Kramer Bussel
The Arc of Triumph Monica Day
Crave You Close A.M. Hartnett
Any Easy Guy to Fall On Annabeth Leong
Lingua Franca Justine Elyot
Third Time’s the Charm Charlene Teglia
Riding Wild Things Lizzy Chambers
No Risk, No Reward Saskia Walker
If Emerald
Getting It Right Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Morning Ride Delilah Devlin
The Efficiency Expert Portia Da Costa
Rekindle Kathleen Bradean

Introduction: Getting Passionate

Passion. It can mean greed, desire, affection, love or simply, emotion. You will find all of those and more in the stories contained herein. As you read these twenty stories, you too will be swept away by passion as you travel to Paris and Greece (and Beverly Hills). You’ll get stuck in an elevator, take a bubble bath and a bus ride (not to mention some subway foreplay and flirting) and explore nature in some very intimate ways. You’ll find couples, and couplings by men and women looking (whether they know it or not) to spice things up in the bedroom.

Here, couples at all stages of their relationships (including the very beginning) kindle their passion in various ways, from exes who reunite to young marrieds on a naughty nature walk to those who mix business with pleasure. When Krista in “Crave You Close” by A. M. Hartnett tells Nicky, “I’m so used to having to hold my breath,” she is saying so much about their usual erotic m.o. At night, outdoors, she is free to make as much noise as she wants to.

These couples explore getting kinky, precisely because they feel intimately connected to each other. They go places, literally and figuratively, they wouldn’t dare without the other. They revisit old flames and nurture new ones; indeed, sometimes the men these women crave, such as Maya does in “The Silver Belt,” are not their husbands at all, but someone else, someone special, someone who is seeing them in an entirely new light. Those stories mingle with other tales of longtime lovers ignited to fiery scenes within these pages.

Passion can mean so many things, from the sexual submission of a caning to exploring new bodily territory--sexual experimentation, trying something you’ve fantasized about. It can mean makeup sex or role-play, a change of scenery or simply a change of thinking. It can mean looking at a lover, a husband, a boyfriend or a new boy toy with fresh eyes, sizing him up, baring yourself, daring him to come and get you.

Just as in real life, there are lovers’ quarrels within these pages, slights real and imagined, as couples find tender, erotic ways to heal their hurts and become even closer. There is an element of real, raw emotion in the way love and desire can as easily tear us down as build us up, that makes us appreciate each expression of romance all the more, because we know how truly special it is. I’m grateful these authors skip from playful romps to relationship-saving sex to tender memories to scorching sex scenes, together creating a book that will likely make you blush and make your heart swell.

As the narrator in one of my favorite pieces, “My Dark Knight” by Jacqueline Applebee, says, “I’m a not-so-hopeless romantic. I believe that chivalry still exists, I hope to find quiet nobility in the most random of places, and I believe that people who love each other can live happily ever after.” She finds a dark, very sexy knight who she rescues, seduces, and then… But you’ll have to read the story to find out.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

Permanently jetlagged, or so it seems

I’ve been recovering from my redeye flight home from LA Sunday night and all the work I haven’t done, though I wish I were getting ready to send out holiday cards, which I adore (even though some people say cards are way over). So anyway, I am getting better but am still pretty weak, though will be eating as many s’mores cupcakes as I can tonight at our Cupcakes Take the Cake 5-year blogiversary party.

I'm stuffy and it's a very sort segment, but I was on New Zealand radio talking about cupcakes yesterday.

If you're looking to give books as holiday gifts (to yourself or others), look no further than Brooklyn indie bookstore Word's holiday gift list. It's delightfully quirky and at the end has recommendations from Anna Perleberg dirct from her shopping list "For My Father, Who Eats History For Breakfast" and "For My Little Brother, Who Is a Nerd in All the Best Possible Ways."

See also Jesse Kornbluth's "10 Books No One Else Will Ever Suggest" (more from me on Head Butler soon).