Excited to read: Best Women's Erotica 2012

I haven't read Best Women's Erotica 2012 yet but I think it's pretty safe to say it's going to be as hot as all of Violet Blue's collections, and, hello, there's a story called "Tweetup." For all the geeky erotica readers!



Lots of my favorite writers, like Remittance Girl, Elizabeth Coldwell, Jacqueline Applebee, Tsaurah Litzky, Sommer Marsden and Donna George Storey, writers who are new to me, an writers whose work I'm just discovering, like Amelia Thornton, whose kinky outdoor sex story "Something to Ruin" is in Women in Lust.

My copy is hopefully arriving by UPS on Monday cause I wasn't home today to get it. I'll tell you more about it once I've read it, but definitely check it out, and coming up next month is Violet's One Night Only: Erotic Encounters, which includes my story "Rock Star Rewards." For the latest on Violet Blue, visit tinynibbles.com and follow her @violetblue on Twitter.

Via Amazon, the lineup for Best Women's Erotica 2012:

Drought by Olivia Glass
Tweetup by Louise Lush
Eddie's All Night Diner by K.D. Grace
Pleasure's Apprentice by Remittance Girl
The Nylon Curtain by Elizabeth Coldwell
A Big Deck by Rosalía Zizzo
Bad by Kay Jaybee
Dolly by Amelia Thornton
No Rest for the Wicked by Jacqueline Applebee
Skinheads by Jaqueline Applebee
The Skin Doctor by Tsaurah Litzky
Pagoda by Sommer Marsden
A Wider World by Donna George Storey
All's Fair by Tiffani Angus
Neighbourly Relations by Dorianne
Let Me In by The Empress
Lolita by Zahara Stardust
The Gourmet by Chaparrita
The Magicians by Valerie Alexander

"Ladies Who Lust" - my introduction to Women in Lust

Women in Lust is so sexy I almost can't even stand it. I have a feeling I'm gonna want to order like 200 copies and pass them out on the street. I won't, because I am trying to be all serious businesswoman here, but I can say that I'm extra excited about it, not just because of the hot cover, or getting to publish new (to me) authors, but because it represents a lot of things I've gone through in my life and identify with, and that I think other women (and men) will to, along with being damn fucking hot. I recommend reading it somewhere you can get off. There's food porn, sex with strangers, travel porn, trysts, BDSM, oral sex, biting, a cowboy, masturbation, cutting and so much more. I feel like it's a birthday present to myself.

I'm excited to be so excited about my work again; it inspires me in all the puzzle pieces of randomness I'm cobbling together that I should bring that fervor to everything, or else not even bother. I linked to Amazon above but will have more purchasing links (and yes, there will be a Kindle edition). The official pub date is November 15 but it will likely be in stores earlier, and stay tuned to @raquelita on Twitter (me!) for free book offer for Amazon reviewers closer to the pub date. Trust me, if you only read one of my books, this is the one to get. Not that I don't love them all, but...there's nothing held back here and I'm thrilled with how daring and bold these characters get.

Ladies Who Lust

Lust. It’s one of those four-letter words that trips off the tongue. When I say it out loud, it makes my lips want to curve into a smile. Lust is more than simple arousal; it is the force that makes us not just turned on, but craving a certain person (or people).

I used to write a sex column called “Lusty Lady,” named after the famed strip club, but somehow lusty, rhyming as it does with busty, sounds a bit like a joke, an added bit of humor, which is how our culture often treats sex. Lust, though, is different; it’s intense, overpowering. While in real life we may not always act every time lust calls to us, in fiction, we can abandon the safety of propriety and seek out lust and sex wherever we find them.

The characters in Women in Lust may vary in the objects of their lust, and how they go about acting on their urge, but what connects them is that pure impulse for a lover. Sometimes he is someone she knows well, is married to or dating; in other stories, he is a stranger, and is sexy precisely because he represents the unknown. Women also lust after other women here, as in Kayar Silkenvoice’s Japanese happy ending massage story, “Cherry Blossom,” and while we only hear one side of the story, I’d like to think the working woman is doing more than just her job. In addition to the culture clash, there’s the joy of throwing caution to the wind while on vacation, using travel to broaden one’s sexual horizons. Whether watching a lover playing guitar, using a webcam, going out for a smoke or simply embracing a chance encounter, these women seize the opportunities presented to them, and savor the lovers who teach them about themselves and help them open up to new sensual possibilities. Sometimes that means looking at the man they live with in a new light, and other times that means something much naughtier. Either way, their lust is a valued part of their lives, not a pesky afterthought or to-do list item on “date night.”

The objects of their lust are not always the “right” person. In “Rain,” a woman falls for her best friend’s boyfriend, one of the ultimate dating taboos, but she goes for it. Sometimes the desire itself, the way it can be used to tease and taunt, as in Charlotte Stein’s “Guess,” is maddening, but we embrace our lusts even when they are maddening, even when they make us do things we might otherwise consider reckless.

For every woman here who can locate her lust on the map of her body, who zeros in on her target and goes for it, there is another who is opened up to her lust by a lover, whether it’s Jen Cross’s narrator pondering what it was, exactly, her orally generous long-ago lover got out of being between her legs. The first words of Shanna Germain’s powerfully kinky “Beneath My Skin” are “I’m afraid,” to which her lover, Kade, responds, “You should be.” Fear can be a powerful motivator and, crossed with lust, can lead to explosive results.

Whether discovering the joy of a younger man, not to mention some delicious pudding, in “Comfort Food,” by Donna George Storey, or taking sex and bondage into the great outdoors in “Something to Ruin” by Amelia Thornton, these women indulge in new ways of getting off and pushing the limits of their lust. Thornton writes: “Despite my longing, there was still part of me that wanted to protest, to tell him to cut me loose, to run wildly through the forest back to the safety of our picnic blanket, but to me that is the beauty of rope: to desire escape but to willingly be imprisoned, to feel the pressure of something that prevents my movement, yet to know there is no place that I feel safer than when trapped like this.” She captures the excitement of giving in to a dominant lover, even when there is a small part of the narrator that is unsure, for that is precisely the part that fuels her desire. This story captures the true power that lies in submission and the many joys it can bring. In “Her, Him and Them,” by Aimee Pearl, the narrator submits to various lovers who question her and push her not only to be the best sub she can be, but to figure out why, exactly, she likes the thrill of submission and service.

I hope these stories inspire some lusty days and nights for you, as they’ have for me.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City



Introduction: Ladies Who Lust

Naughty Thoughts Portia Da Costa
Guess Charlotte Stein
Her, Him and Them Aimee Pearl
Bayou Clancy Nacht
Smoke Elizabeth Coldwell
Bite Me Lucy Hughes
Ride a Cowboy Del Carmen
Queen of Sheba Jen Cross
Hot for Teacher Rachel Kramer Bussel
Unbidden Brandy Fox
Something to Ruin Amelia Thornton
Guitar Hero Kin Fallon
Ode to a Masturbator Aimee Herman
Orchid Jacqueline Applebee
Cherry Blossom Kayar Silkenvoice
Rain Olivia Archer
The Hard Way Justine Elyot
Strapped K D Grace
Beneath My Skin Shanna Germain
Comfort Food Donna George Storey

Hotness

I am glad to see I'm not the only one smitten with Jackson's post about menswear. I sent it to Hitha, my fashion jouralist guru. Guys into clothes should also check out See Jack Shop, run by Kathryn Finney of The Budget Fashionista fame (who is organizing a Fashion for Obama event!!). I will say I find it highly amusing that I am way, way less of a fashionista or foodie than Jackson is. But that just adds to the hotness. I can learn about cheese gougères, right? It all balances out.

I actually abhor smoking, but he manages to make it look hot, as in this shot taken during an interminable wait for the LA bus (which ended with the bus never coming and Amelia G and Forrest Black of Blue Blood to the rescue):

Bald = hot

I have dated/slept with/lusted after my fair share of bald guys, and while I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re my “type” of guy or that I go out of my way to look for them, the fact remains that to me there’s something pretty hot about some bald guys. Not all, but when they’ve got the hotness going on, they really have it going on. Stroking a man’s bald head is incredibly erotic, and something about men with no or very, very little hair that they deliberately display like that beckons to me, making me to want to touch them there, even if just to run my palms along their smooth scalps.

I was joking tonight that my ex who shaved his head had more “hair care” products than I do (cause I have, like, none). When I was discussing the hot-or-notness of bald men with some women I’d just met at a party tonight, one such specimen was standing nearby and we all looked over at him, but probably only I blushed. One of the women pointed out that only certain guys can wear baldness well, and I definitely think that’s true (for the record, the party guy did). It’s also just plain old attention-getting. I have a touch of the manesia (not yet on urban dictionary: inability to remember many men’s names/faces) so baldness can help clue me in.

That’s why when I read Matt DeMazza’s post on the Playboy blog about being a baldie (and being named Bald Guy of the Week by Bald Guyz hair care products), I was thrilled, and emailed him to sing its praises.

I’ve since found Baldrus.com and “6 Reasons Bald Men Are Better Lovers.” I really hate generalizations like that, though it was entertaining. For me it’s not that bald is always better or that I don’t like guys with hair, cause I do, it’s just this really sensual feeling I enjoy of running my hands along a lover’s bald head, of feeling a bald head brushing against my cleavage, of kissing a man there softly, gently, then moving down to his neck…

Maybe it’s because for women, hair is such a thing. We cut it, dye it, play with it, braid it, flip it around. Hair is totally sexual, and I say this as someone who’s almost always opted for long hair, who likes to have my hair pulled, who loves playing with my own hair. I do also like being able to run my fingers through a lover’s hair, or pull on it, and men rarely have hair long enough for that in my experience; girls are better in the hair-pulling department. But bald men, yeah, I’ve certainly enjoyed my dalliances with them. This guy is all the way in Utah, but I’ll say it: I’d do him. Maybe I will write an erotica story about a bald guy…stay tuned.