3 new erotica anthology calls for submissions

Good news: I'm editing three new Cleis Press erotica anthologies! Here are my erotic short story calls for submissions, with May 1 and June 1, 2022 deadlines, and payments of $100 for Couples Erotica and Sexy Strangers and $225 for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9, which has a theme of temptation.



The first two for Couples Erotica and Sexy Strangers are open to all writers, and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 9 is open to authors who themselves are women, gender nonconforming, genderqueer and/or nonbinary who have not been published or scheduled to be published in the first eight Best Women’s Erotica of the Year volumes edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel; all volumes have this stipulation around authors' identity and I don't repeat authors in the series to make room for as many writers as possible. The first 8 volumes have included work by 146 authors. Everything I'm looking for is listed in the guidelines, but if you have any questions I don't answer in the guidelines, please email me at the address listed with the call. That's the only way you should be contacting me with questions about these anthologies.

Please spread the word! I've worked with over 700 authors in my anthologies so far and my goal is to get to 1,000 authors, so I'm hoping to fill these books with as many authors I haven't worked with before as possible. That's one of my favorite aspects of being an anthology editor.

On Fire has a hot cover and even hotter stories and you can review it early!

I'm thrilled that on July 18, the ebook edition of my latest Cleis Press anthology, On Fire: Erotic Romance Stories, will be out (the print edition hits stores August 8). This book is super hot, as befitting an anthology titled On Fire. It's also one that I got delayed on, so I'm extra excited that it's almost out in the world and determined to have these wonderful authors read as widely as possible, because they are seriously hot. Many of them are different from what I've published before; I've got a vampire story here ("Masquerade") and a femdom story ("Dreams Made Flesh") and sexy swingers (my story "The Dance") and so much more..

While most of my books are in bookstores across the country (and occasionally outside the U.S.), the vast majority of you read them as ebooks or listen to them as audiobooks. I love this, both as a price conscious shopper, because people can buy more ebooks since they tend to be cheaper, hence they get to read more, and because I have always had a vision of my books being as accessible as possible. When I took a vacation in Honolulu, I was overjoyed that some of my books were on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was like I'd visited Hawaii before I even got there! So I want them out in as many formats as they can possibly be. The On Fire audiobook, narrated by my favorite narrator in the world, Rose Caraway, who I've worked with on 10 other audio titles, will be out at the end of July.

Getting back to accessibility...here's the scoop: Some of the books I've edited since I started this journey way back when are out of print, most likely never to return to bookstore shelves, and lots of those never got an ebook or audiobook edition because they were published before that was so common. Some publishers I've worked with have folded, some books quietly didn't sell and have pretty much vanished. It happens, but these days I work far harder to get my books "out there" and am determined that the ones I put out now stay in print/as ebooks and audiobooks for a long, long time, ideally throughout my lifetime. To that end, I want to spread the word to as many readers and potential readers as possible. This is both my livelihood and my passion, but that means that if my books don't sell, out of financial necessity, I'll have to stop editing them and move on to something else to sustain myself, because I believe equal pay also means, Work only for what you're worth. That's a discussion for another time, but my point is, I both want and need my books to reach lots of readers. My personal goal is always to have each new book outsell the last. Of course I can't control that, but I can set it as my goal to push myself to try harder with each release and explore new avenues of reaching readers in this vast world of endless books available to you at the click of a button 24/7. It's a world I love and indulge in myself as a consumer, but it also makes it more challenging to make any single title stand out.

All of this is to say that the #1 way I promote my books and drive sales is through readers like you leaving reviews on sites like Amazon and Goodreads. Yes, over the years I've tried ads on book-related websites, I've paid to fly myself here, there and everywhere, I've made postcards and bookmarks and buttons. I won't say I've tried everything, but of all the methods of book promotion I've tried, having honest reviews on the main sites where readers congregate has been what gets other people interested. This is partly because of how the algorithms on those sites work, so the books of mine with the most reviews, such as The Big Book of Orgasms, almost always sell better than the ones with fewer reviews.



So until June 18, one month before the ebook release, I'm offering all of you a free e-copy of On Fire, with the request that you leave an honest review of at least one sentence on Amazon (U.S.) and/or Goodreads. To comply with FTC rules, your review should state a version of, "I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review." And that's it! Read one story, or two, or all 20. Share the one you loved the most, the one you liked least, what turned you on, what intrigued you...that part is up to you. I can't tell you what to write, I can only tell you that I am so proud of this book and all the sexiness contained in it. It's filed under "erotic romance" but I think it's safe to say if you like erotica, you'll like much of it, and if you like romance, you'll like much of it. Here's the official blurb about it and endorsements by two authors whose writing I adore (thank you, Charlotte and Elizabeth!):

"Every story is a sinfully sexy yet always romantic delight." Charlotte Stein, author of Never Sweeter

“On Fire is a delicious collection of sensual, luxurious erotic shorts, like bites of the finest chocolate that linger on your tongue.” Elizabeth SaFleur, author of the Elite Doms of Washington series

In On Fire, today’s top erotic romance authors don’t skimp on love or lust--they are entwined in tales that will make pulses pound and hearts race. Bestselling editor Rachel Kramer Bussel takes us inside the passions of couples who go above and beyond in their pursuit of sexual and romantic satisfaction, exploring the racy to the outrageous during their many arousing adventures. You’ll treasure the sex toy exploration in “Every Second of It,” find paranormal pleasure in “Masquerade,” and be transported to “A Place As Beautiful As This.” You’ll go “Beyond the Blindfold,” find out what lurks in the “Art of Darkness,” and delight in discovering “The Sweetest Thing.” These steamy stories by Kristina Wright, Delilah Devlin, Giselle Renarde, Kay Jaybee, Victoria Blisse, Jade A. Waters and others are perfect intimate reads to enjoy with your lover or for your own pleasure.

You can see the full table of contents and my introduction on the book's Tumblr.

That's my spiel. If you want to review the book, leave your name and email address in this form by June 18, 2017 at 11:59 pm EST. I'll send you the PDF and then you can post your review any time at Goodreads and starting July 18, 2017 on Amazon. Of course if you want to review it elsewhere, such as on a blog, other book retailer, etc., that is wonderful, but all I am asking is for you review on either Goodreads and/or Amazon.com (U.S.), which are the sites most of my readers use. If you want to do an extra erotica good deed, you can add the book to your "want to read list" on Goodreads (you'll see the button when you click the Goodreads link above). Again, I'm not an expert, but I believe Goodreads factors in which books have the most people listing them as want to read and promotes/showcases those books more widely. My hope is a) you'll find something, or many things, that entertains you and b) you'll discover a new author whose work you'll want to keep on reading. Thank you in advance and here's to On Fire and a sexy summer!

And if you're sitting there thinking, But I really want a free print copy of On Fire, I'll be giving those away in my monthly newsletter in July, so subscribe on the left-hand side of my Lusty Lady blog or at rachelkramerbussel.com. June's newsletter giveaway will be to win a copy of my femdom anthology She's on Top!

Listen to anal sex free erotica story "Hard Astern" on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast

To celebrate the recent release of the Baby Got Back: Anal Erotica audiobook narrated by the amazing Rose Caraway, she's posted free erotic story "Hard Astern" by Thomas Roche on her The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast! Enjoy this sexy tale and subscribe to her podcast on iTunes or Stitcher so you can hear every story, and visit thekissmequicks.com for more hotness.

Free erotica story: "Her Best" by Corrine A. Silver on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast

You can now listen to another hot story from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, appropriately titled "Her Best" by Corrine A. Silver, on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast narrated by Rose Caraway. You can listen to two other free erotica stories on the podcast: "Brick Dust" by Kay Jaybee and "Taste" by Jocelyn Bringas and get the full audiobook experience on Audible. I love working with Rose so much and am honored that I got to do so again.

Free audio erotica on The Kiss Me Quick's Podcast and enter to win Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

I've loved working with Rose Caraway, the narrator of many of my anthologies (and certainly the best selling ones), including Gotta Have It, The Big Book of Orgasms, The Big Book of Submission and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, because she's got a gorgeous voice, reaches a wide audience and is super talented at what she does. I have a post in the works about passive income for authors and how successful our audiobook collaborations have been for me, but it's not just the money. It's that Rose is exposing my books, and my authors, to a huge range of listeners who very likely would never have come across the print or ebook versions otherwise. This really can't be overstated, so I'm thrilled to have worked with her again on two new audiobooks: Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica and Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, both of which are out now on Audible.



Not only that, but you can listen to "The Prototype" by Malin James free on The Kiss Me Quick's podcast.



Here's a little excerpt from the beginning of "The Prototype:"

“What the hell is that?”

“It’s a prototype,” Edward says, grinning like a kid.

“For what?”

I ask because the form and function of the thing in Edward’s hand remains unclear. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a beach ball that’s been shoved through a piece of three-quarter-inch plastic pipe. The pipe forms a sort of handle—I can tell because that’s where he’s holding it—while the uninflated ball flops out the other side, all strangled and primary colored. He has a bright-red bicycle pump clutched in his other hand.

“It’s something I’m making. For you.”

Edward smiles at me. His eyes, behind his glasses, are earnest and adorable. Edward invents things for fun. In real life, he does something abstract with currency markets, but in his dreams he has an underground lab and a henchman. At the moment, he’s wearing his eureka! face, which means he’s onto something.

“That’s really sweet, babe,” I say, coming closer. “But I’m not sure what I’m going to do with a ball shoved through a tube.” “Ah,” he replies, “but it’s not just a ball shoved through a tube. Watch!”

Edward holds out the contraption, which is, apparently, more than it seems, and rummages around in the “handle” before pulling out the ball’s valve. Then he attaches the bicycle pump. Cradling it like a baby, he lays the prototype on the counter and pumps the ball full of air. Once the ball is inflated, it sticks awkwardly out from the top of the plastic rod like a…like an I don’t know the hell what. Then he looks at me, triumphant. He’s so jazzed he’s nearly rocking on his heels. With a grin, he presents it to me like a bouquet.

When I set out to edit a book of sex toy erotica, I knew I wanted stories about both the kinds of toys you'll find in stories that sell sex toys as well as tales involving using household items to arouse characters and fictional toys, the kind that either can only exist on the page or that so far have only existed in an author's imagination. The combination of these various types of toys is to me what makes Come Again such a wonderful anthology, one I'm very proud of and I'm thrilled it's getting a wider audience. Rose is giving away copies signed by me or a copy of the audiobook in this Facebook contest that runs through October 24. Enter now!

While I'm posting about audiobooks, Dirty Dates is also special to me because it's all about BDSM and kinky couples who explore their interests in a wide range of very hot ways. You can listen to it now at Audible.

I've got a brand new story in anthology For the Men edited by Rose Caraway

I have been focusing more on essay and article writing than my own erotic fiction lately due to time constraints so I'm thrilled to have a brand new story out in the world, the male point of view tale "Picturing You Naked" in For The Men And The Women Who Love Them edited by Rose Caraway. It's told in the second person and is about a very sexy speech given in a room full of people but with some erotic double entendres intended for one special person. I love experimenting like that and I was inspired by an article, which I no longer have handy, about how to give a speech. This is one way that might not fly in real life but was perfect, in my opinion, for fiction. Here's the first paragraph: "I'm picturing you naked, every lush curve, those lips that seem glossy and bee-stung even when you have nothing on them, the strip of red hair that matches the locks that drape against your shoulders. I'm picturing the way your ass juts out perfectly, especially when you stand in that way you often do so it reaches toward me, begging me to lay a hand on it. I'm picturing the gold ring emerging from your right nipple, the one that always tempts me to tug or flick or suck on it." It's out now as an ebook (and soon as an audiobook) and you can get it for Kindle, Smashwords and iBooks.



Follow @ForTheMenAntho on Twitter for updates. Hope you enjoy the book! Rose is wonderful to work with so writers, if you see a call for submissions from her out, I highly recommend submitting. She's @RoseCaraway on Twitter and her podcast is The Kiss Me Quick's.

Official blurb:

The Sexy Librarian, Rose Caraway presents an anthology intended for the fellas and the women who have an appetite for bold, adventurous erotic storytelling. Escape into the fantastic, the outlandish, and the literary. Get ready for; a space pirate, a cowgirl, an anxious odd man out, an undercover agent, lonely ghosts, a taxi driver with an unexpected topsy-turvy fare, a burly biker who just wants to be cuddled, a bride-to-be with one last oat to sow, The Devil offers a golden deal, a mysterious hitchhiker, strangers and a spontaneous three-way, and a reluctant hitman. You will find these and many more audacious characters playing out intense encounters.

Featured stories by: Allen Dusk, Jade A. Waters, Terrance Aldon Shaw, Tamsin Flowers, Landon Dixon, Sonnie de Soto, Adrea Kore, D. Lovejoy, Erin Pim, J.T. Seate, Spencer Dryden, Winter Blair, Simon Drax, Lynn Lake, Chase Morgan, Charlie Powell, Josie Jordan, Daily Hollow, Marc Angel, Rachel de Vine, D.L. King, Dorothy Freed, Rachel Kramer Bussel, T.J. Christian, and Emmanuelle de Maupassant.

Listen to my bisexual open marriage travel erotica story "Flying Solo" on new podcast episode

I love working with Rose Caraway, author, editor, audiobook narrator and host of The Kiss Me Quick's podcast because she is super talented, has an incredibly sexy voice and best of all, from my perspective as an anthology editor, makes the stories in my books available to anyone who wants to listen to them for free! That's what she's done with my story "Flying Solo" (click on the story title and scroll to the bottom to listen; press the arrow to the left of "libsyn" to start)) from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which stars a woman who usually picks up partners with her husband when they travel, but in this case is about to board a plane alone (hence the title) and has been instructed to bed someone she meets by her hubby. You'll have to listen to find out what happens next. And you can hear all 22 stories from the book ready by Rose on the Audible audiobook. Also, I couldn't be more thrilled with the hot graphic they came up with (catch the fun wordplay on the airplane; "Stupidfish" is their production company) that so perfectly captures the spirit of my story.



For more free erotica from the book, listen to these stories read by Rose:

"The Carnalarium" by Rose Caraway

"Two Doms for Dinner" by Dorothy Freed

"Ophelia the Second" by Jade A. Waters

My new short story "Triple Threat" in Kristina Wright's The One Who Got Away

I'm thrilled to share that just in time for Valentine's Day, I have a brand new short story titled "Triple Threat" out in Kristina Wright's anthology The One Who Got Away. It's out today in paperback and ebook (I link to Amazon via their affiliate program, meaning I get a small fee if yo purchase through my links, but I also encourage you to ask for the book at your local bookstore). Here's more about the book:

We all have... that One, the one who got away. The one we fell for or simply were attracted to, but we never got. That One, but not necessarily The One, at least not the first time around. That One who slips into our fantasies late at night when we’re feeling melancholy or nostalgic. Maybe we took a chance once and it simply didn’t work out. Maybe we never took the chance... and we wish we had. We all have the name of the One Who Got Away tattooed on our heart, always with us, never forgotten.

There is something hopelessly romantic about the idea of connecting with a long lost love. This luscious Cleis Press collection of second chance stories celebrates longing and loves that, whether by fate or by design, are at last requited and fulfilled.

And isn't the cover hot?



Here's a very brief teaser from my story, which is about jealousy, polyamory, love lost and happy endings.

I used to think I knew everything in my twenties. Now, in my early forties, I can laugh at my younger self, who’d race from bar to bar, bed to bed, living utterly in the moment. I rarely stopped to think what would happen after last call, after the sun came up, or whether all those late nights and flings would catch up with me.

Then I fell for Luke, with his big brain, big body, big dick and the most self-confidence I’ve ever seen in anyone. He would walk into a room—any room—and be sure that everyone would want to talk to him, if only he gave them the chance, which he did, most nights. He’d close out bars, with men and women alike buying him drinks, eager to soak up a few moments of his brainpower, of those pale blue eyes and soft as silk hair—well, maybe that was me. I couldn’t get enough of that rumbly voice, of the way everything he said made me look at the world around me in new ways. He made me swoon before he even kissed me, so you can only imagine what he was like in bed. The only problem?

Read the whole story in The One Who Got Away!

Here's the table of contents:

The One Who Got Away
Introduction: Always on my Mind
Homecoming by Alex Tobin
Again by Renee Luke
Polygot by Skylar Kade
Sunshine by Emerald
Overexposed by Brandy Fox
How to Get Your Wife Back in Only About a Million Steps by Claire de Winter
Proof by Mia Hopkins
The One Who Came Instead by Tamsin Flowers
In the Dark, so Bright by Laila Blake
Triple Threat by Rachel Kramer Bussel
A Few Grey Hairs by H. Keyes
Photographs by Jillian Boyd
Danish Affair by J. Crichton
Beginnings and Endings by Kristina Wright

4 things this editor gives my anthology contributors in addition to paying them money

I am gearing up for the release of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which hits bookstores and e-readers January 12th, and also to post the my new call for submissions for Cleis Press for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, which you can find on January 1 at bweoftheyear.com. The payment for authors for that volume, will be, as this one was, $100 per story. It's a fee I hope to be able to increase if I am given the opportunity to edit future volumes; I have no idea if that will happen, and right now my focus is on making the first volume as big a seller as I possibly can.



Already, I can tell you that I've gotten the woman I consider the very best erotica narrator around, who also happens to be a contributor to the book, Rose Caraway, as the narrator of the upcoming audiobook. That's one way I'm expanding the reach of this volume and ensuring that it reaches a wide readership/listenership.

Because I know that for most of us, that is a small sum in the grand scheme of bills to pay, I want to talk a little bit about what else I try to provide my authors. As a full-time freelance writer/editor/teacher/consultant, I know very well the value of money. I don't get paid sick days or holidays. I only get paid for work I produce, and that means that I'm highly aware of the value of every penny I spend and every penny I make. It's why I plan to tell those authors whose work is accepted this year to not waste their precious dollars sending their contracts via priority mail, when cheaper, regular old mail will do perfectly and won't cut into their $100 fee.

So because I'm aware that $100 isn't that much money, here's some of the other ways I try to support my authors:

1. Social media - I've made a Twitter list of the contributors to Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 and am doing my best to promote them, retweet them, and share their additional news, such as free erotica stories.

2. Interviews - I try to give authors a way to promote their own work and to highlight the efforts they've put into crafting their stories in my books. In the case of this book, I'm doing a series of Q&As on Tumblr with my authors. So far, I've interviewed: Elizabeth Coldwell, Rose P. Lethe, Valerie Alexander and Theda Hudson.

3. Reviews - The moment I see one of my authors praised in a review of the book they're published in, I let them know. I also post those wonderful words highlighting their stories on social media, as I did with the recent Library Journal review. I want them to hear what people have to say about their work; of course, if a review pans my author, I won't go out of my way to point that out to them, but an up-and-coming author can use some of those reviews in their own promotional materials, to bolster a book proposal or simply to quote on their website.

4. Live events - Plug: come hear me read from Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 at these free events: January 19th, 6:30-8:30 pm at Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco, with Amy Butcher, Rose Caraway, Dorothy Freed and Jade A. Waters, and March 31st at The Pleasure Chest, 3436 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, from 6-7:30 pm with Tara Betts and Rose P. Lethe.

This is probably the most costly and time-consuming aspect of anthology editing. On one level, you could see it as me asking authors to provide free labor, because essentially, I am. I'm asking them to take time out of their day or night and read their story to a live audience. But why I think this is helpful to them is: a) they get to bond with audience members and grow their own fan base, b) they get to hear their work read aloud and find out how people respond to it in the flesh, c) they get to meet fellow contributors in person and b) returning to social media, I promote their name and, if they are amenable, their photo on social media. Their name may get mentioned in major media outlets that are listing the event. I firmly believe that live readings go a lot further than the limited number of people who will actually attend such an event. Simply getting your event "out there" means you're raising awareness of the existence of the book and those authors' work in the book.

Is there more I can do for my authors? Most likely, yes! I am in ongoing communication with them and open to suggestions, and hope to add new readings to the lineup in 2016. I want my contributors to feel proud of not just their bylines, but being part of this book as a whole. I want to give them as much support as I'm capable of given my time and resources. And as I said, my goal is to make this book and the next one sell far beyond my wildest dreams, which will enable me to do more promotions, more readers, and pay future authors even more money. For now, this is what I can offer, and I look forward to launching this book and reading submissions for the next one in the new year.

The Best Women's Erotica of the Year series is now on Instagram, or why I'm putting everything I can into using book marketing tips for this title

Warning: You are going to be hearing a lot from me about my 61st anthology, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1. I'm not apologizing, just letting you know. I've been editing anthologies since 2004, but working on this one feels in some ways like I'm doing it for the first time. Why? Because this one feels special in an entirely new way. It feels like I've been given an editorial gift that I don't want to squander. I will be announcing a call for submissions for the second volume on January 1st at bweoftheyear.com, and the deadline will be April 1, 2016, but for the first half of 2016, I will be focused on getting this book into as many stores as possible, and into the hands (and, later, ears) of as many readers as I can.

It feels momentous, like the culmination of all I've learned since that first anthology. I've done a lot right, and faltered here and there, with my anthologies, but I've discovered some of what both brings me joy about editing and what I think brings strength to the series. One of the things I'm most proud of is giving authors the opportunity to be published for the first time, such as Rose P. Lethe, whose story "Out of the Ordinary," about a couple where the trans man is having a tough time dealing with his disapproving family, and sex helps them bond as a couple. This is her first published erotica story. I hope to publish more authors' first published erotica in the series too.

So because this book is so important to me, I'm going all out in terms of promotion. I've been sending postcards to bookstores and sex toy stores to let them know about the book. I've been doing outreach on Twitter and via email. So far, I can tell you that Good Vibrations, with stores in the San Francisco Bay Area and Brookline, Massachusetts, and Toronto sex toy stores Come As You Are and Good for Her will have Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, when it comes out on January 12th, and postcards for it in the next few weeks. I hope to add to that list in a big way.

I've planned free readings, happening January 19th in San Francisco at Good Vibrations Polk Street and March 31st in Chicago at The Pleasure Chest, where I look forward to reading with contributors, especially those I've never met in person before.

I'm also trying something new with social media. In addition to Best Women's Erotica of the Year being on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, I've set up an Instagram account for the series.



Due to my making a typo the first time around, the title is not the full series name, but bestwomenseroticaofyearseries, which I think captures what this is: a series devoted to women's erotica. I look forward to posting photos from stores that stock it, and from our readings and events, and maybe even a short video here and there. Please feel free to follow the series, and I'll follow back (my personal Instagram account is rachelkramerbussel).

Thank you for your support for this book! Anything you can do to help it succeed is much appreciated. Here's some suggestions:

1. Follow us on one of the above social media platforms and share the news that the book is coming out.

2. Back our Thunderclap campaign. By doing so, you'll allow Thunderclap to post one time on January 12th on your Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr account letting people know the book is out.

3. Pre-order the book on Amazon or another online bookstore.

3. Pre-order the book at your local independent bookstore.

5. Mark Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 as want to read on Goodreads.

6. Come to one of our events! Or let me know where you'd like to see us do a reading by emailing bweoftheyear at gmail.com

7. On January 12th or afterwards, leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon or Bn.com or Powells or your blog or anywhere else. Tag the book on social media or send the link to bweoftheyear at gmail.com so I can spread the word.

8. On January 1, check out the call for submissions for Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, and if you qualify, consider submitting your work, or share the call with a writer you'd like to see published in this series.

Thank you for reading! I can't wait to share these 22 amazingly hot, sexy, creative, fun, wonderful stories with the world.

A brand new free erotica story that I'm glad got rejected the first time

I'll be writing more about how to handle writing rejection and turn it into a positive step for your career soon, but today I want to highlight one example. My story "Spitting Image" is up today at Tamsin Flowers' Supererotica Advent calendar. I recommend reading all the entries; you can start with day 1, which features "Fallen" by Tamsin Flowers.



She's asking readers to donate to these charities, if you're so inclined: Crisis, The Albert Kennedy Trust or Coalition for the Homeless.

I'm thrilled to have a new, original story free for you to read, because most of my writing lately has been nonfiction, with my only new erotic fiction stories appearing in my recent and upcoming anthologies such as Come Again, Dirty Dates and Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1.

What's especially gratifying for me about this particular story is that I had submitted it to an anthology and gotten good feedback on it, only to later have it be rejected. Of course, I was disappointed. I wondered: What's wrong with my oral sex sensuous spit story? Was I foolish to expect it to make the cut? Am I bad at the male POV?

But then I smartly shook my head, drew up my shoulders, and decided to send my little tale out in the world. I was proud of it and didn't need to take one person's no for an answer. So I sent it to Tamsin and she loved it! Now, I'm not saying it's "good" because someone else approved of it; I don't believe in that. "Good" is by and large subjective—and yes, I say that as someone who teaches erotica writing classes and does believe anyone, certainly including myself, can improve and deepen their writing. But at the end of the day, you can't make someone like your work. You can't insist they read it or appreciate it. You can only work to find what Jennifer Lee calls in Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way your "right peeps." Tamsin is one of my right peeps, and I'm thrilled she chose my story for her project.

No matter what form it takes, rejection isn't fun. I'm actually already dreading having to do it for my next call for submissions, which I hope to have posted in the next few weeks (yes, it's awful to be on the side doing the rejecting too). But it's also part of writing (and dare I say, also part of life), and is why I recommended the podcast Behind the Prose with Keysha Whitaker, because in one episode I listened to, she said, "Getting rejected is part of the process. If you're not getting rejected, that means you're not writing." Sorry, I can't remember the exact episode, but what's great about her podcast is she opens by talking about her writing acceptances and rejections. She normalizes rejection, which is good because she's absolutely right: whether you're talking about fiction or nonfiction, rejection is part and parcel of the process of sending out your work.

The only way to never get rejected is to never submit anything, which is also a valid choice, and not one I mean to malign, but if your goal is to be read by a wide audience, unless you're building that audience via self-publishing or a blog or podcast or some other means, you will need to risk your work being rejected by someone. Once, I was determined to break into a certain online literary journal. I thought that doing so would mean I'd "made it," that I was smart and cool and as good a writer as someone I was desperately jealous of. I submitted three times (and this is one that charges a small fee to submit) before I realized I was doing it for the wrong reasons. I didn't stop submitting because I was afraid of rejection, which had already happened, but because that particular quest was pointless and the rejections were hitting me way too hard (so hard that one led to one of the worst and craziest decisions of my life, which is also a story for another day, but let's just say something illegal was involved in my post-rejection stupor).

I made the leap of risking rejection with this story, "Spitting Image," twice; once my story got the boot, and once it got a thumbs up. It's still the same story, and it's not a "better" or "sexier" story because someone said yes to it. What it is is available for you to read for free. I hope you like it!

Happy birthday to me and happy book birthday to Dirty Dates!

So, it's my birthday, and it's been so busy, in a good way, that I haven't had a chance to post about it until now. I'll be posting about what it means to me to be turning 40 soon, but for now, I wanted to share that my latest anthology, Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, is officially for sale in print!



So if you're wondering what to get the woman already has too much stuff (this hoarder raises her hand!), the best "happy birthday" gift to me is actually a gift for YOU. Or someone you love/lust after/want to get kinky with. Yes, Dirty Dates has lots of inspiration. No, it's not a how-to, but it's got super sexy stories that have fun date ideas, whether you're kinky or not, that will very likely give you ideas for adding some creative hotness to your relationship (or your next relationship. There are married couples, couples who are just starting to date, kinky couples, female submissions, female dominants and a lot more. It includes short stories written by Jade A. Waters (read about the inspiration behind her story "The Swap" on Jade's blog), Justine Elyot, D. L. King, Dorothy Freed (read an excerpt from "The Corset" at Kinkly) and others. You can read the full table of contents and introduction on Tumblr and below is where you can buy it (or pre-order the ebook). I'm thrilled to share a birthday with my book, and hope you enjoy it too!

Amazon

Kindle

Barnes & Noble

Nook

Books-a-Million (paperback)

Books-a-Million (ebook)

Powells

IndieBound (find it at your local bookstore)

iBooks

Kobo

Cleis Press

Amazon UK

Kindle UK

Amazon Canada

A new free BDSM erotica story by me and a new cover for my 40th birthday book Dirty Dates

Maybe you've noticed from my wordy subject line I know shit about SEO and have trouble sticking to word counts. That's me, and what I've learned about myself is that I am not likely to change the core things that make me unique. I spent a long time trying to, and now I'm learning to embrace all my quirks and oddities and even my flaws.

I shared a brand new free BDSM erotica story up at Lady Smut called "Indoor Voices." Lemonade from a writing rejection: I had a contract for this story for an anthology and had even blogged that it was in an anthology, because that's where I thought it was being published. I found out yesterday I was incorrect, and after a few moments of disappointment, I decided to publish it. It's also a taste of my BSDM erotica that I hope will get you excited about my anthology that pubs on my 40th birthday, November 10th: Dirty Dates: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, which is available for pre-order and now has a way hot new cover! Read the introduction and table of contents on Tumblr and subscribe to my monthly newsletter at rachelkramerbussel.com for writing tips, event info and giveaways!

Free sexy deflowering erotic romance short story from my book Only You, which is on sale today for $1.99!

It's been such a busy week I haven't had a chance to post here that my anthology Only You: Erotic Romance for Women (though of course, as always, any reader of any gender can appreciate this book!) is only $1.99 on Kindle (US).



To make up for that, here's most of my story "For the Very First Time" below. I post links to all my sales and writings on Twitter and Facebook and you can also sign up for my newsletter at left or at rachelkramerbussel.com for contests and the latest news. I've updated my website with most of my events (it'll be fully caught up soon), and am gearing up for my September 11th Los Angeles erotica and nonfiction sex writing workshops which are open to anyone, followed by attending and moderating an amazing panel on sharing our sex lives on the page and the stage at CatalystCon, then teaching erotica September 20th at SHE (Sexual Health Expo) in New York and teaching again at Nomia in Portland, Maine on October 21st from 7:30 pm-9 pm - the Maine workshop is limited to 20 people and you can sign up by calling the store at 207-773-4774. Plus stay tuned for a Washington, DC erotica workshop!

Table of Contents

Introduction: Very Happy Endings

Driven Angela Caperton
Overcome Alyssa Turner
Forgotten Bodies Giselle Renarde
In the Doghouse Hanna Martine
Autumn Rain Michael A. Gonzales
The Love We Make Kristina Wright
In-Flight Entertainment Catherine Paulssen
Republicans Don’t Like Kate Dominic
Mom’s Night Out Lolita Lopez
Slow Fire Donna George Storey
The Nude, Stripped Naked Jeremy Edwards
Edge Skylar Kade
Unfolding K D Grace
Married Abigail Grey
Cook’s Treat Elizabeth Coldwell
Hollywood Romance Veronica Wilde
Matters of the Heart Tenille Brown
September Song Anna Watson
Saved Cassandra Carr
For the Very First Time Rachel Kramer Bussel

From "For the Very First Time" by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Dean and I are snuggled on my couch, half watching TV, half feeling each other up. We’ve been dating for two months, a long time for me to go without sex, but I’m comfortable with the way the night is going. We’ve already decided that he’ll sleep over and spend the weekend. He’s done it before, and I’ve stayed at his place, but this night feels more momentous. I know something is going to change, and I feel that charge of something new and thrilling, of anticipation, in the air.

We watch some cheesy sitcom, and then I move to sit on his lap. I don’t usually do that with guys, because I’m six feet tall, and even when they’re tall (Dean’s just two inches shorter than me), it quickly becomes clear I’m not some petite little thing who can fit cozily on their laps. They have to commit to it, to make an effort, to really want it. I’m not offended when guys prefer side-by-side cuddling, but this time it feels right to be sitting on Dean’s lap, feeling his hardness beneath me.

I’m getting so turned on I don’t even mind that it’s not, actually, the most comfortable position. I’m slowly sinking into him, our bodies merging. If I shift a little, his breath catches the back of my neck, making me tingle. Dean doesn’t seem to mind, and his hand lazily plays with the waistband of my new pink mesh panties through the silky fabric of my gray dress. I’m waiting, eager, practically climbing the walls. My desire is like that much of the time: content to lie dormant, until it makes itself known and won’t take no for an answer. Of course I’ve used my assortment of sex toys during the time we’ve been dating, and the four months before that when I was lazily single, not eager to seek out someone new, content to wait and see. But six months is a long time, and I’m horny and oh-so-ready. I’ve been trying to be the girl here, the one who waits to get seduced, the one who lets the man feel manly by making the first move, even though that’s not normally my style. I don’t know if I really believe in all that stuff, but it’s sort of like religion, to me; if there’s a chance that believing is worth it, I’m in, and I’ve found that even the most enlightened men can easily fall prey to being the macho man, the seducer. I’m always willing to try something new, and from the times I’ve felt Dean’s cock through his pants, it’s one worth waiting for, though by now I’ve waited long enough.

We met just when I’d been ready to consider looking up an ex for a roll in the hay. I saw Dean and simply couldn’t look away. He was so stunning that I couldn’t help but go over to him after hearing him sing at my local café, where we’re sometimes treated to the likes of a Shawn Colvin or John Prine, but more often get the up-and-comers. I don’t generally bother with younger men, but Dean’s voice and delivery said to me “old soul.” Too many guys in their twenties and even thirties are so cocky they think every woman, even those totally out of their league, was put on earth just to blow them. That type will hit on me, but shrink away when I demand a mere modicum of commitment.

But Dean was different. He was handsome, but not so perfect that he was arrogant, at least from what I could tell as I watched him strumming his guitar. So many performers have that ego thing down pat, but he had the shy, earnest look of a busker, one who was more comfortable in the bowels of a subway station than on a stage surrounded by drinks and laughter and flirting. It was almost like he was singing these soulful, tender, beautiful songs to himself, with his eyes closed, his body thrown into each song. He launched into a Richard Thompson cover, “Beeswing.” He didn’t try to do the accent, but he sang with all his heart. When he got to the end, the line, “Well I wouldn’t want her any other way,” I could tell he was thinking of his own version of that song’s eccentric heroine, and I found that I wasn’t jealous of his girl who got away, but curious. I wanted him to rest his head in my lap while I sat on the floor next to him and he told me all about her, and then I could kiss him and make it better. He was sitting back in his chair, legs clad in worn dark blue jeans spread slightly, foot tapping along, eyes intermittently lost in memory, in song, and there, present, with us. He was beautiful, and the crowd could tell he was someone to be silent for. He made me want to curl up next to him, on the ground, if need be, and I smiled in a way I don’t seem to do all that often in New York City.

I’d tried to play it cool after the show, but I’d still stammered my way through greeting him. Pushing forty, you’d think I’d have a clue how to talk to a man—or in this case, man-boy—but that ability had forsaken me. Thankfully, Dean agreed to dinner the next night, telling me he loved greasy spoons. I couldn’t remember the last time a guy had told a truth like that, rather than trying to impress me with the latest trendy boîte. Over burgers dripping with grease and fries with even more, we talked and talked and talked. The place is open twenty-four hours so they didn’t care that we stayed from nine ’til three in the morning, as long as we kept ordering coffee. He reached for the bill and I noted the twenty-dollar tip he left, impressed. He offered me a ride home, and even though I usually walk or take the subway, I agreed, wanting to spend more time with him, as much as I could get. I’d expected him to pin me to his car, even though our conversation was more cerebral than flirty. We’d made out, for another hour, and his hands had gone up my shirt but he hadn’t tried to get me to come home with him or to come home with me, just dropped me off like a gentleman. I soon discovered that’s exactly what he was—a gentle man—and I’d been trying to make him a little less gentle as the weeks turned into months.

I knew he was busy with shows most nights and trying to woo record label A&R types the rest of the time, so I didn’t push him. This was a weekend we’d set aside for ourselves, and instead of the hassle of going away, we’d settled on a staycation right at my apartment. Phones and computers off, our focus would be totally on each other, which I’d taken—or at least, hoped—to mean lots of blazing-hot sex. I’d gone to get waxed and while I usually leave a landing strip of hair in front, this time I told my waxer to take it all off. “Someone special going to see?” she asked.

Sometimes I get a little freaked out by too much conversation in the salon, but this time I was happy to wax on, if you will, about my new man. He was so sweet and sexy all in one, and I even gave her a postcard touting his next gig.

So as I’m sitting on his lap, I’m waiting for him to make his move, and then finally I just go for it. “Dean,” I say, sitting up, looking him directly in the eye, blocking his view of the TV. “I want you. By which I mean, I want your cock. In my mouth, in my pussy, everywhere. I thought you’d have figured that out by now. I dream about you. I touch myself and think about you. Don’t you want me?” I ask, noting a creeping edge of whiny neediness entering my voice.

“Oh, my god, of course I do. I can’t believe you’d think otherwise.” He pauses, and I settle into his lap again. He tries to look away, but I steer his gaze directly toward me. “Okay, I’m just gonna come right out and say this and if you don’t want to see me after this I totally understand, but I hope you will. I’ve never done this before. I’m a virgin. And I’m worried that someone like you will be disappointed.”

Whoa. I turn to look at him, but now his eyes are closed. I stroke his cheek tenderly, suddenly protective of him—not his virginity, which I very much plan to take, but his heart. I’d known right away this was “serious,” but not until this moment exactly how serious. “Look at me. Open your eyes.”

He does, his body trembling. “Dean, I want you—all of you. It’s okay. I’m not expecting you to be like anyone but yourself. Do you understand that?”

He nods, but his eyes seem cloudy still, like he doesn’t really get it. “Look, baby…do I want to sleep with you? I can’t lie—yes, yes I do. Am I going to push you to do it sooner than you’d want to? Of course not. I want you, not some random cock. I want the whole package.” I don’t say that I’d had plenty of other more experienced packages, and here I was, forty and single, and so over the guys who were cocky enough to think they owned the world, or at least, New York City.

He stares at me for a long time, and finally a small smile appears on his face. “The whole thing? Are you sure you can handle it?” His laugh is soft, but definitely a laugh, as he takes my hand and presses it tight against his hardness. Then neither of us speaks, and the enormity of what we are about to do washes over me. If I weren’t sure I wanted him—him, all of him, everything from his curls that seemed to melt through my fingers to the omnipresent stubble on his chin to the elaborate snake tattooed along his arm, every strum of his guitar and every brooding, beautiful look—I wouldn’t keep touching him. There’d been times in my life when I would have “fucked like a man,” as they say, taken what I could get, what I wanted, and then moved on. And while I desperately want him at that moment, his cock is just a part of what I want. I do want everything—I’m greedy like that—but I don’t want it by any means necessary. I wouldn’t want to use him for sex and move on, leaving him, shattered, to write a song or even an album about the bitch who broke his heart. I’m suddenly more hungry than horny, hungry for the look he is giving me, the heat that is penetrating through our clothes. If you can be hungry for a hint of forever, that’s what I am.

But we are here, now, and I can’t know what will happen, if I will break his heart or he mine. The best laid plans and all that, but still, I can’t worry about every possible eventuality. You can live in fear forever and never walk outside your door, never take even a baby step into the unknown. If he’s willing to take that first step with me, I’m ready, too. I know that when I stand and pull him up and toward my bedroom, I’m not doing so as some wise-woman courtesan intent on teaching a new young thing tricks he’ll use on other women. I’m not trying to teach him anything, but simply to share myself with and indulge and love him, for as long as we are able to.

Read the full story plus all the others in Only You, just $1.99 on Kindle today!

Why I picked it: "Jailbait Torch Song" by Valerie Alexander in Hungry for More

Welcome back to Why I Picked It Wednesday, a peek into my editorial decisions when selecting stories for my erotica anthologies, and a chance to highlight some favorites I've published over the years. Here I want to talk about "Jailbait Torch Song" by Valerie Alexander in Hungry for More: Romantic Fantasies for Women, whose title already pushes the envelope.



Jailbait. It's a taunting, teasing word. Are we supposed to be repulsed? Intrigued? Repulsed because we are intrigued? Yet it's the combination of the entire title that truly gives the story its meaning. As a reader, I often find it challenging to go toward the taboo, to not stop myself from enjoying it, to not think, In real life, would I be squicked or condemn these people? Powerful writing humanizes those society would deem sick or wrong, and in this case, even grapples with some of the ostracism the characters face for acting on their desires.

Dictionary.com defines torch song as "a popular song concerned with unhappiness or failure in love," with its origins coming from "the phrase to carry a torch for (someone)." That, far more than the taboo nature of a 29-year-old single mother having a torrid romance with an 18-year-old young man, is what this story is about, to my mind. Publishers Weekly called the story "unexpectedly poignant" and that captures part of what I loved about it, why I knew I wanted it in my book even though I also knew it would likely throw at least a few readers off with the way it employed its tenderness, its desire, its romance through an often socially unacceptable lens. What Alexander does is build both the tension and the taboo, weaving them, playing Tanner's teenage lust against Lyla's mix of propriety and hunger. The story starts off telling us exactly what she's strived to do for the last decade: "Lyla tried to be a good single mother." That principle guides her, yes, but she is also a woman, and has natural human desires, and the story forces the reader, and the characters, to question whether what we've been told about age differences is in fact correct. It doesn't give us an answer, but lets us decide, and pulls on our heartstrings in the process. Here's an excerpt of one of their earliest moments:

From "Jailbait Torch Song" by Valerie Alexander

He leaned into the car. “I just wanted to tell you that we have a home game tomorrow night. You should come.”

“Yeah, I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t have a reason to be there,” she said. “Because it would look weird.”

He walked away. Puzzled, she waited for him to return and say good-bye. Then the passenger door swung open and he climbed in the car.

Oh no. Quickly she elevated her window. “I have to pick up my son,” she said.

Then his hand was in her hair, hauling her across the seat and onto his long body as if she were weightless. He was shaking. His arms went around her, pulling her against his chest so hard she could feel his heart thumping. He kissed her with almost feverish desperation, his cold hands sliding up under her sweater and under her bra. “Don’t stop me,” he muttered into her mouth and then she was grinding all over the promise of his hard cock, humping him with abandon.

I don't want to give away the whole story, because it's a beautiful, tender, sexy, romantic one. It's one of the most memorable stories I've published, in my opinion, and one I could reread any time and find new nuances. I hope you'll check it out, and I hope I get to publish many more like this.

Buy Hungry for More from:

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

Audible audiobook (click through to listen to a free sample)

Here's the other stories in the book:

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

Why I picked it: "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore in Orgasmic

If you've ever taken an erotica writing class with me, you've likely heard me quote from one of my favorite stories of the many hundreds I've published: "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore. It's about, yes, chemistry, as in labs and scientists, and it's in Orgasmic: Erotica for Women, which, even though it's about 25 women and their 25 different orgasms, is really "for everyone." It's also currently on sale for 99 cents on Kindle, to end any moment (it was supposed to end yesterday). It's also 99 cents on Google Play.



What I love so much about it is that it taps into an unusual fetish, portrays a woman of science who's hot for scientists, uses the senses, especially the sense of smell, and brilliantly takes us inside the mind of the narrator and her fetish. It jumps right into what she's all about and doesn't let up. Part of why Orgasmic is the model I use when editing anthologies, such as Best Women's Erotica 2016, which I'll be reading all the submissions for next week (deadline is June 1, writers!), is that it is so wonderfully varied. No, it doesn't have every possible way a woman could come; I don't have the space for that. But it looks at single women, coupled women, kinky women, queer women, and so many more. Just as the book as a whole is a model for me for what I aim to achieve as an editor, this story is a model I offer as one example of an exquisite erotic story.

Here's a snippet, and I hope you'll like it enough to check out the book. As I said, the 99 cent sale is probably ending very soon. You can also get it in paperback and audiobook narrated by Lucy malone. Here's a little snippet of what I love about the story. I hope you like it too:

From "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore:

The smell of science makes me horny.

I narrowly resisted shoving my hands down my pants and rubbing myself to oblivion during my niece’s science fair. My stomach dips with pleasure every time someone lights a match. Each July I’m aroused by the vapors of the noise-making novelty fireworks called “snappers.” Little do tricksters know that when they crack one on the pavement at my feet, I shiver out of excitement, not fear.

Smell is the sense tied most closely to human memory. So when I sense any use of potassium chlorate; a white, crystalline compound well stocked in science laboratories and often used for combustion; I remember how it feels to have the fire of orgasm sizzle its way through my body and melt a liquid path down my legs. The chemical’s odor singes my nostrils and flashes me back to the sensation of a chilly, marble countertop pressed against my back, to the press of fingers digging into my supple thighs, to the slick pressure of rounded glass slipping in and out.

And it’s what I remember most about him.

Most scientists that I’ve met fit the typical stereotypes. Most would rather analyze your genes than pry off your jeans. Yet I suspected that Michael Harrison was capable of much more than stripping me of my pants. With his wavy black hair, broad shoulders and Clark Kent glasses, I believed that stripped of his unassuming attire, he would have something surprising and heroically powerful bulging underneath.

I understood this the first time I shook his hand and caught the scent of chemicals trapped in his clothes and seared into his skin, a smell faint and tangy and far too interesting to be cologne, like the smell of your body after a lengthy swim in a freshly chlorinated pool. I imagined that if I should run my tongue along his perky nipples, my tongue would sizzle as though touched to the tip of a battery.

We needed a scientist to impress the hospital donors with a tour of the lab. I planned to find an excuse to use him.

25 women orgasming - read all about it for 99 cents in Orgasmic

Orgasmic is only 99 cents right now on Kindle! I believe the sale lasts until Thursday, so act fast. It remains one of my favorite of the 50+ anthologies I've edited. Why? I think it's one of the hottest and certainly most varied. I made sure that none of the 25 female orgasm erotica tales were too similar, and it has a story I read from in all my writing classes, "Chemistry" by Velvet Moore, which I consider a model of how to write an intriguing erotic tale about an unusual fetish. Want to read my BDSM story "Belted" for free? Visit Goodreads, and I hope you'll also enjoy the other 24. At 4 cents a story, this bargain can't be beat (unlike the narrator of "Belted")! If you've been hankering to listen to these orgasm erotica stories narrated by Lucy Malone, buy the 99 cent Kindle version and get the audiobook for just $3.99!



Want more enticement? Watch the book trailer:



Table of contents

Introduction: Let Me Count the Ways…

The Waiting Game Elizabeth Coldwell
What’s in a Name? Jacqueline Applebee
Chemistry Velvet Moore
The Chair Lolita Lopez
Fixing the Pipes Susie Hara
Share Dusty Horn
Hurdles Rowan Elizabeth
Seeing Stars Louisa Harte
Old Faithful Sylvia Lowry
Paying It Forward Kendra Wayne
The Big O Donna George Storey
Moon Tantra Teresa Noelle Roberts
Feet on the Dashboard Rachel Green
Frosting First Lana Fox
All She Wanted Andrea Dale
Making Shapes Lily Harlem
Rapture Angela Caperton
Belted Rachel Kramer Bussel
Rise and Shine Heidi Champa
Taking the Reins Vanessa Vaughn
First Date with the Dom Noelle Keely
Animal Inside Neve Black
The London O Justine Elyot
Fight Charlotte Stein
Switch Jade Melisande

What gets you off? How do you like to come? Let Orgasmic count the ways…with 25 stories centered around female orgasm, there’s something here for every reader. The women in Orgasmic climax from Tantric sex, role-playing, piercing, G-spot play, sex toys, horseback riding, BDSM, a belt and even chemistry–the scientific kind. They delight in food, God and handymen. They create their own objects of pleasure; they spy, tease, obey, command, argue, submit. Some are shy about their orgasms and some are bold as can be. They come, and come and come again, and they do it in some of the hottest, most creative ways you can think of. Featuring red-hot erotica by some of today’s hottest writers, these stories will make you want to stop everything and have an orgasm immediately…once you’ve turned the last succulent page.

Don't miss out on this special Orgasmic sale, very appropriate for National Masturbation Month!

Free femdom from Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

It's been quite the week, so to celebrate the weekend and Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, here's a free excerpt from my story "Claws Out," inspired by actual claws I saw but never bought at Purple Passion. By the time I was able to buy them, they no longer stocked them! I can't find a good photo that does justice the ones I had wanted to buy, but if I do, I will post it. In the meantime, here's part of my story; read the rest along with 20 other creative, hot, sexy varied stories of sex toys in Come Again. Read more about "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis and "Must Love Dolls" by Giselle Renarde from Come Again.

From "Claws Out" by Rachel Kramer Bussel

He only began to stir when she raised his hands above his head and twisted her panties into makeshift handcuffs around his wrists. “What’s going on?”

“You’ll find out soon enough, Sleeping Beauty.” She ran the flat of her palm along his spine, down over the slope of one buttcheek, curving along his balls. She wanted to make sure he was, indeed, hard; otherwise the torment of keeping him on edge lost some of its appeal.

“That’s what I like to feel first thing in the morning,” she uttered as she reached beneath him and wrapped her hand around his stiff cock. John tried to buck into her touch, but she was too smart for that, and immediately dropped it.

“That’s not what your dick is for,” she snapped. His moan let her know he didn’t mind one bit; being used as little more than a phallic prop turned him on like nothing else. Okay, maybe not quite as much as her taking him to the edge of pain and keeping him dangling on the precipice. Celia grabbed the pouch before straddling his waist, making sure her wetness met his warm skin. If she wanted to, she could simply hump him until she came, maybe use a vibrator to heighten her pleasure. But she’d have no problem getting off later; this was about a more lasting kind of pleasure, the kind she got from making sure he knew he belonged to her, through and through.

Before she broke open the pouch, Celia decided to play good domme for a little while longer. She leaned over to the bedside drawer, letting her nipples brush against his back as she reached for the massage oil. “Just relax.” Those two little words could have multiple meanings—their simple, surface meaning, or their more twisted, sadistic opposite. She wasn’t above telling him to relax right before she pushed the lever on his nipple clamps higher, tightening them on his nubs, or before she brought a vibrator up to his balls. It was up to him to read her well enough to hear beyond the dictionary definition, to learn her body language even when he couldn’t see her. Only when he’d mastered that skill would she truly know he had long-term potential.

Celia warmed the oil between her hands, pausing to rub a little on her breasts, once again leaning down, this time to smear the warm liquid directly onto him. She added more, doing a sexy slip and slide before capping the bottle. Then she put her training as a masseuse to work. She’d done a stint as a massage girl, giving hand jobs but also true back massages; she’d been so good that the latter were what netted her the biggest tips.

Soon he was practically purring, putty in her hands—just where she wanted him. After digging her elbows into a few strategic spots, Celia stopped.

“Stay right there; I’ll know if you move.” She got up to wash her hands, and when she returned, she made sure to jingle the claws; the soft tinkling sound of metal on metal made him groan. “I have a surprise for you, because I take good care of what’s mine, don’t I?” When all Celia got was a moan, she pinched the tender skin at the back of his neck. “Words, darling, use your words.”

“Yes, you do. You always know what I like.”

“That’s more like it. Now relax; this will only work if you don’t tense up.”

Then she put the claws back on, transforming herself into what she considered her own version of Catwoman. She didn’t need to dress up; the claws were all the costume she desired. With them on, she was a fierce woman with a weapon, one she chose to use for their mutual pleasure.

She waited until the only sound she could hear was John’s heavy breathing. She shifted so the full weight of the warmth between her legs pressed down against him, then, steadying herself with her left hand on his upper back, she traced the tips of the claws from the nape of his neck on down. With barely any pressure, they still had a profound effect, if his breathing was any indication. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked, before sinking them just a little more firmly into his soft, pliant skin.

“Oh my god,” he sobbed, his body shaking as she made identical pink lines down his back. Celia had expected, to some degree, how turned on he would get, but the claws seemed to be working just as much magic on her. With each stripe she left on him, a corresponding jolt of excitement crept from his body back into hers.

Buy Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica in print or ebook form from the following places (full independent bookstore and sex toy store list coming soon!):

Amazon

Kindle ebook

Amazon UK

Kindle UK

Barnes & Noble (Bn.com)

Nook ebook

iBooks

Kobo

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find it at your local independent bookstore)

Cleis Press

Why I picked it: "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis in Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

This is the first in an occasional new blog post series called Why I Picked It, where I'll share why I picked a particular story for one of my 50+ anthologies (yes, my site's books page needs updating - I'm on it!). I'm starting with "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis, the closing story in my new anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, out now in print and ebook.


Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica



This was the closest approximation I could find online to the pink vibrator telling the story, though I imagine the narrator vibe is a bit of a lighter shade of pink

Ellis was a new (to me) author, and this story, out of the many submissions I received, stood out because, well, it was from the point of view of a vibrator! How could I not be intrigued? Here's the opening paragraphs:

From "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis

I come into existence on a Thursday in a factory in the Guangdong province. My first sensation is of touch. The firm yet well-seasoned hands of my maker, Hui Zhong, have smoothed and stroked my pearlescent pink silicone shell. Although I will never know, I can guess from the brief time we spend together that she is a woman who takes immense care with everything she turns her attention to. I particularly like the brilliant red of the scarf that covers her steel-wool hair. The intense scrutiny of her glaucoma-wrecked eyes misses nothing. I know truly for the first time what it is to live when she slips the pair of C batteries into my innards and gives my bottom a trial.

I whirl, I jiggle, I shimmy, I shake. I do what Hui Zhong built me to do—I vibrate. For the first time, by doing what I was built to do, I make someone smile. I please her and I please her well.

I loved how this unique viewpoint added such a humorous and interesting voice to the story and the book as a whole. It made me think about sex toys in a new way and allowed the author to approach telling her story from a different angle than you'd get it if was told by any of the human characters, who wouldn't be present for the toy's entire journey.

Plus it featured two women having sex with each other, which I wanted more of in the book (there are many heterosexual stories, as well as a few bisexual ones, one transgender man and one gay male erotica story, if I recall correctly).

It also is in first person present tense, which most of the stories in Come Again are not, though "Vegetable Love" by Susan St. Aubin, "Prickles" by Elizabeth Coldwell and "Gift" by Dena Hankins are. Here, I think it works so perfectly, because we get to follow the vibrator from China to the toy's eventual home (I almost wrote "her eventual home," which shows how closely an object as narrator can affect a reader).

You can read all of "My Life as a Vibrator" and the 23 other stories in Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, available from:

Amazon

Kindle ebook

Amazon UK

Kindle UK

Barnes & Noble (Bn.com)

Nook ebook

iBooks

Kobo

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find it at your local independent bookstore)

Cleis Press

The only brick and mortar store I know currently has it in stock, and signed copies at that, is Red Emma's in Baltimore. It's on its way to Charis Circle in Atlanta and Early to Bed in Chicago. Want to see it on your local bookstore and/or sex toy store's shelves? Ask for it! I will blog, Tweet, Tumble, Facebook and generally promote any store carrying the book that I know about. If you see the book at a local store or I missed any places you can buy it, email me at rachel at comeagainbook.com and I will update this post and the book's website!

My new threesome story in Three of Hearts edited by Kristina Wright

I have a brand new threesome erotica story in the just-released anthology Three of Hearts edited by Kristina Wright, which will be out as an ebook for Kindle and other ebook forms on Tuesday, March 17th as well.



Here's a little snippet of my story:

An Extra Pair of Eyes
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Billie could have tried to pretend she was putting an extra coat of lip gloss on for Clyde's sake, but the smile dancing upon her now super shiny lips wasn't for her husband. Or rather, it wasn't for her husband alone. Nor was the tug of desire echoing from deep within her. She knew the difference after four years together. There were times when she wanted nothing more than to rip Clyde's clothes off, or he came home and barely said hello before he was lifting her onto the nearest piece of furniture and kissing her so passionately she lost any thoughts in her head.

But there were other times when what lit her up, inside and out, was the thrill of checking out someone new, imagining his or her lips pressed against hers. Or, in this case, pressed against hers and Clyde's. She didn't know whether Mr. Ripped Jeans and Sexy Stubble would be into that, but the high of flirting with a stranger was that she didn't kneed to know. Simply giving him The Look was enough to make her heart pound so hard she had to force herself to take a deep breath, lest she lose her head entirely.

Those breaths didn't help when she returned to the bar and the guy patted the stool next to him. He'd already ordered her a drink, one clearly far stronger than her planned Diet Coke. Clyde was running late, so why not? She smiled, pursing her glossy lips. "Well, thank you. Dare I ask what this is?"

"Why don't you guess?" His voice made her grip the edge of the bar and tighten the press of her thighs against each other. The tight seam of her jeans taunted her as she shifted, bending low to sip from the edge of the martini glass. She avoided looking at him just then, sure her pale face was by now hot pink.

"A cosmo? Really? That's the best you could do?" She couldn't help the complaint, even as the heat from the sweet drink made its way through her body.

The stranger gave her a good long look up and down. "What did you have in mind instead, princess?"