Wednesday Writing Challenge: Scars

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Challenge!

??  Want to Participate  ??

~For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 

 

September Prize: An Advance Reader Copy of 

Satin and Steel

The Books of Blood and Fire, Book 2!

~ For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

And now...

***Here's Today's Challenge!***

 

Scars by Candra

Choose a scar somewhere on your body.

Write a flash fiction of 100 words explaining where the scar came from.

The story doesn't have to be true.

The story doesn't have to be about you. It can be about a fictional character who has the same scar as you.

Describe what it means to the person who bears it.

Add your entry to the comments below!

 PLEASE REMEMBER YOU MUST BE SIGNED UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER. OTHERWISE I MAY NOT BE ABLE TO NOTIFY YOU IF YOU WIN!

Friday Free Audio Read: ~She~

This recording is NC17 and contains graphic sexual content. You may want to listen with headphones!

(If you aren't able to listen to the audio, the text version is posted below)

       



  

We've made it to the final round of the Bleeding Heart Book Awards! Thank you to everyone who has voted for us so far. Let's take it all the way to the top!

Best Paranormal Novel: http://tinyurl.com/pht5doo

Best F/F Romance: http://tinyurl.com/op7wtso

Wednesday Writing Challenge: Word Association

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Challenge!

Every Wednesday, I pose a new writing challenge here on the blog. 

The Wednesday Challenges are open to all readers. In order to participate, simply comment on the challenge post with your response to the exercise. Not only is it good practice, but you could win something nifty and fun!

 

September Prize: An Advance Reader Copy of 

Satin and Steel

The Books of Blood and Fire, Book 2!

~ For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We've Made it to the Final Round of the Bleeding Heart Book Awards!

We've made it to the final round of the Bleeding Heart Book Awards! Thank you to everyone who has voted for us so far. Let's take it all the way to the top!

Best Paranormal Novel: http://tinyurl.com/pht5doo

Best F/F Romance: http://tinyurl.com/op7wtso

Voting remains open until September 30th.

In the Headlines - "Soccer Mom" Erotic Novelist, Meredith Wild

There have been many stories in recent years about the mild-mannered, unassuming mommy who hits it big writing erotic stories in her free time. The authors of such titles as Cum for Bigfoot have been known to make comments that their income from these books are putting their children through college.

Along comes Meredith Wild, author of the Hardwired series, a brand new smash success in the erotica market. 33 years old, mother of three, and now happily living in Florida with her husband who's retired from his full-time fire-fighting career to help her with her rising erotica empire. With a  $7 million book deal in her pocket, Meredith Wild certainly counts as a success story all us Indie authors wish we could be.

I haven't read Meredith Wild personally, but I think I might be tempted to pick up her first book and give it a try. How about you, Dear Reader? Has anyone read the Hardwired series? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Talking Shop: Revisiting the Sexualization of Minors

I'd intended to write this week about the suspension of disbelief in erotica, however a major migraine has me down for the evening. So I'll be saving that subject for next week, but in the meantime I'm revisiting an old article I hope you will find interesting. Till next week!

Allow me to get up on a pedestal about one of my favorite books, Proven Guilty, by Jim Butcher.

 

A little Dresden fan art by yours truly

Here is a portion of a review posted by a reader about this book.

 The last few pages of this book made my skin crawl. Sexualizing an underage character and Harry blatantly lusting after her and beating himself up over it and trying to moralize it is just... awful. But like I said, this isn't Harry. This is some weird thing Jim Butcher has going on in his head. Was he substitute teaching while writing this one? I mean, he talks about her body, and piercings that you 'can't see' and I wondered which one of his friends' daughters he is lusting after in real life.

Eeee-yikes.

Audio Free Read: Dichotomies, a Blood and Fire Short

 I've been wanting to go back and record some of my earlier short stories, and Dichotomies has been itching for my attention. With a new Blood and Fire novel on the way to e-book shelves, I thought it would be a great time to revisit my supernatural demons and their wicked ways.

Wednesday Writing Challenge: Complications

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Challenge!

Every Wednesday, I pose a new writing challenge here on the blog. 

The Wednesday Challenges are open to all readers. In order to participate, simply comment on the challenge post with your response to the exercise. Not only is it good practice, but you could win something nifty and fun!

 

September Prize: An Advance Reader Copy of 

Satin and Steel

The Books of Blood and Fire, Book 2!

~ For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Headlines - Candida Royalle, Erotic Filmmaker, Dies

Last week in New York, Candida Royalle, a former pornographic star and film maker of erotic works for women, passed away. 

 

Candida Royalle in her office in New York City in 1990, after she turned to making films.
Credit Jim Estrin/The New York Times

After studying art and design in New York, Ms. Royalle became a pornographic actress in California for several years. In 1980 she made the move from actress to producer, founding her own company, Femme Productions. 

Ms. Royalle focused her work on erotic films designed to appeal to women and couples; she hoped to answer the unmet needs of women who wanted erotic media of their own.
“Women were curious and wanted to see if there were some sexy movies they could enjoy with their partner, and there was nothing out there for that,” she is quoted as saying.




Of course, she had her critics. She was often put down for participating in a misogynistic system that exploited women just as much as any other pornographer. For my part, though, I can't help but admire a woman embracing her own sexuality and the reality of women's sexual needs and desires.

Have you ever seen one of Ms. Royalle's films? What do you think of women in the pornography business, and directing pornography intended for women?

"Perhaps if we weren’t still so consumed with guilt and shame about sex, neither watching nor performing in these films would carry the weight it does. But then, perhaps we wouldn’t be so interested in them, either. If the fruit were not forbidden, would anyone care to take a bite?"

~Candida Royalle

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Please don't forget our books have been nominated for the Bleeding Heart Blog Book Awards! You can vote once every day.

Click Here to Support Lotus Petals for

Best Paranormal Romance Novel

Here to Support Lotus Petals or Goblin Fires for

Best F/F Novel

Bleeding Heart 1st Annual Book Awards!

Click Here to Support Lotus Petals for

Best Paranormal Romance Novel

Here to Support Lotus Petals or Goblin Fires for

Best F/F Novel

You can cast another vote every day this week! Please return and show your love for lesbian romance!

And if you have another moment, I'd like to mention a few other very wonderful authors and bloggers who are up for awards:

Torie James and the New Camelot Series for 

Best Series

Wendy Schuffert for 

Best PA

and

The Book Mistress for 

Best Book Blog

Thanks for the nominations, and thanks for all the support you've given Foreplay and Fangs Erotic Romance!

Talking Shop: Writing About the Pussy

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Friday Free Read: Hungry

She was hungry.

No surprise. She’d huddled in the old church, in the dark, for days. All the time swimming in and out of a hot fever, dazed from fear. Listening with confusion for the sounds of them, the sounds of the dead shuffling and shambling and groaning outside. Not so long ago Cleo could have strolled across the street for a bag of chips and a soda from the deli, no problem. Tonight, the simple distance—maybe fifty yards at most—might as well stretch half the planet. The flesh-eaters hunted out there. Two weeks ago, they’d taken the one last living person Cleo knew.

Art by PatrickFinch

Wednesday Writing Challenge: Flowers

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Challenge!

Every Wednesday, I pose a new writing challenge here on the blog. 

The Wednesday Challenges are open to all readers. In order to participate, simply comment on the challenge post with your response to the exercise. Not only is it good practice, but you could win something nifty and fun!

 

September Prize: An Advance Reader Copy of 

Satin and Steel

The Books of Blood and Fire, Book 2!

~ For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In The Headlines: LGBTQ and Religion

Anybody who follows me on Twitter or Facebook probably noticed me getting a little angry over the recent news about Kim Davis and her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses based on her personal faith.

This is a very important issue to me. You see, I’m a Christian. I’m also bisexual, staunchly pro-LGBTQ, and passionate about my spiritual and individual identity. To me, my Christ-based spiritual faith is not about the lives or choices made by anyone else, but my own life, and my own choices. My faith dictates how I will treat others, not how I will judge them. And it saddens me to no end to know there are people out there who hate, fear, and rightfully reject Christians on the whole, because of people like Kim Davis, who think God has given them authority to preach discrimination and exclusion.

I don’t mean to try and convert anyone, mind you. Another of my strongly-held beliefs is that while I identify and relate to a Christ-based philosophy, that which I believe to be God I also believe to be capable of speaking to others in a way more relatable and personal to them. To me, this isn’t about converting anyone to Christianity, or Christians hurting the chance of others becoming Christian. It’s about how my faith is being reflected, and in my opinion, Kim Davis and her supporters are reflecting nothing but ugliness and hate. And this infuriates me.

Also in the headlines this week is a really wonderful article by author Matthew Vines: 5 Bible-Based Responses to Common Arguments Against Marriage Equality.  And these are the sorts of discourse I love to see: discussion of the Biblical teachings which show my faith is, in fact, not all about hate and rejection and overbearing moralism.

I’m not the kind of Christian who advocates literal interpretation of the Bible, anyway, but I find intelligent discussion about its teachings very enlightening. Insofar as the text has been used to advocate against LGBTQ equal rights, how do you feel about these arguments dismantling such interpretation?

And in closing...

Talking Shop: Writing About Anal Sex

Let’s talk butts.

Anal sex is, let’s be honest, a subject that doesn’t allow for much sense of “romance”, when you first think of it.  It’s very much a staple of erotica more than anything, and outside of M/M romance it still has a sort of taboo to it. It shouldn’t be this way, but at the same time it’s not very hard to understand why.

Friday Free Read: Phone Home (Audio Reading)

Today's free read is a contemporary erotic short story from my collection.  This scene is NSFW and NC17. You probably want to enjoy it from the safety of a pair of good headphones...but if you can't listen with headphones, the text version of the scene is below the cut.

Wednesday Writing Challenge: Transported 2

Welcome to the Wednesday Writing Challenge!

Every Wednesday, I pose a new writing challenge here on the blog. 

The Wednesday Challenges are open to all readers. In order to participate, simply comment on the challenge post with your response to the exercise. Not only is it good practice, but you could win something nifty and fun!

 

September Prize: An Advance Reader Copy of 

Satin and Steel

The Books of Blood and Fire, Book 2!

~ For Full Contest Details, See Here ~

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~