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Saturday, 26 July 2014

Book Review - Smut by the Sea Vol #3

Smut by the Sea, Vol #3
Edited by Victoria Blisse and Lucy Felthouse

There’s a song that goes, “Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, Oh I do like to be beside the sea…” It’s a tune I’m familiar with because I live in Blackpool and the song is practically the town’s anthem.

I mention this because, in Smut by the Sea, Volume #3, Victoria Blisse and Lucy Felthouse have managed to gather a collection of stories that combine the saucy fun of being by the seaside with the powerful impact of well-written erotic fiction.

With contributions from established and celebrated writers such as Tilly Hunter, Zak Jane Keir and Primula Bond, as well as the editors and too many other contributors to name individually, the content varies from the serious to the frivolous: never losing focus on the importance of the smutty content.

One of the first stories I read here was ‘Artistic License’ from Jillian Boyd. I’m not familiar with Jillian Boyd’s work so it was a true pleasure discovering her fun approach to storytelling as she relates the tale of Leah, alone on holiday following a break up.

Boyd’s writing is accessible and fluid in the way she relates a story. Her characters are credible and the erotic content is powerful and vivid.


The same can be said for all the fiction in this collection. It’s a book that is entertaining from beginning to end and delivers exactly what it promises in the title. If you do like to be beside the seaside, you’ll love reading Smut by the Sea, Vol #3.

5/5 STARS

Review by Ashley Lister


Saturday, 19 July 2014

What do editors look for? Treva Harte


Treva Harte became co-owner and Editor-in -Chief of Loose Id in 2004. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from University of Arizona (high honors), a M.A. in English Literature from University of Virginia and a J.D. from University of Virginia. She is a member of the Virginia and D.C. bars. From 1988 until 2008 she was a Trademark Examining Attorney for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Treva is also multi-published with several e-publishers in print and e-book, is a member of EPIC, RWA, including the Passionate Ink and Rainbow Romance Writers Chapters, has been a member of PAN, and was winner of the CAPA 2003 award in the "Erotic Fantasy Romance" category.

1) Put your email addy on your manuscript.  Things can be separated, even in cyberspace, and definitely on paper.  It’s incredibly frustrating to read a ms. and then try to figure out how to contact someone.

2)      Read the guidelines if you want to up the odds of it being read by the editor.  Read some other books by the company to up the odds of it being accepted by the publisher. 

3)      Like what you write. Like the genre you write in. Those who do tend not to burn out.  Editors can tell you’re unhappy as you slow down and get cranky about edits.  Slow, cranky authors are no fun.

4)      Be proud of what you write.  If you’ve done the best you can do with it, don’t waste your time apologizing or picking apart mistakes that have been made.  Learn and move on by writing the next book.  Editors love to see authors getting better at their craft. 

5)      Don’t demand validation from your editors—or anyone else.  Editors may or may not give it and if they do, it might not be in the way you want.  Readers may or may not respond to your work.  If you do get nice reviews and fan squee, there will be plenty of people waiting to tear apart any praise.  On the other hand, getting feedback from your editor about strengths and weaknesses in your writing and what you should be working on next is useful for you and your writing career with a publisher.


To find out more about Treva Harte, Eic Loose Id, visit www.loose-id.com or 
http://treva2007.livejournal.com/ (Loose Change, a blog Treva sometimes maintains that includes writing and publishing tips).

Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Drenched

 Edited by Kojo Black

An anthology of wet and wild erotica from: Janine Ashbless, Justine Elyot, Primula Bond, Lisette Ashton and Vina Green.

Melusine by Janine Ashbless
Every Friday for ten years, Martin’s beautiful wife has left their home to spend the night somewhere else. Now, Martin can bear it no longer, and he is out to uncover the mind-blowing truth…no matter what the cost.

The Pool Party by Primula Bond In the hills of southern France, an empty villa and luxurious pool provide two friends with unforeseen temptations...

Naiad by Justine Elyot Told in the style of a modern myth, Naiad is a wet and wild tale of an urban nymph returning to her element.

Hard to Swallow by Lisette Ashton A radio station's ambitious receptionist is enthralled by the voluptuous bottles of mineral water carried by all the DJs. There’s nothing like cool water for a dry throat, but it takes more than water to quench a burning lust!


A Divine Solution by Vina Green In the midst of the worst drought in decades, a young wife bursts the dam of her desire and, in doing so, discovers that she might just save her whole community...

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Five Tips from Shanna Germain


 Five tips on writing erotica from Shanna Germain:

1) Write all the time. As much as you can. Make time for it.

2) Read all the time. As much as you can. The first time for pleasure. The second for education.


3) Find a great first reader, one who understands what you're attempting to do and can articulate both your strengths and weaknesses as a writer.

4) Remember that when you read a published book, you're reading the equivalent of someone else's feature film. Don't compare it to your own blooper reel.

5) Don't sway to the marketplace. Trust your voice and vision.

Shanna  Germain is the author of many pieces of fiction including 'All About the Girls in Rachel Kramer Bussel's anthology Tasting Her. More of Shanna's work can be found on: www.shannagermain.com

Saturday, 28 June 2014

What do editors look for? Alison Tyler


 Wait. What time is it? Can you believe that I’ve been editing erotic books since the early 90s? Holy fuck, how did that happen? Over the years (and the 50+ anthologies), I’ve become fairly adept at knowing right away whether a story is going to work for me. How? Simple.

1)     Catch me with your opening sentence. I’ve noticed that some writers take a few paragraphs to get started. Check your piece to see whether your true opener is lurking halfway down the page. 

2)     Proof your work. Not only for errors, but also for sloppiness. One of my biggest pet peeves is the use of word repetitions. A well-known writer subbed me a 2,500-word story in which “slip” appeared 14 times (slipped, slipping, slippery).  Nothing is that wet. 

3)     “It” is another of my sticking points. Look for “it.” Replace “it.” Grab a thesaurus if you don’t know another word for “it.” 

4)      Are your characters shouting, giggling, chortling, whispering, moaning, groaning, howling, whispering, or grunting too often? Ask yourself in the rewrite. “Said” can go a long way. 

5)     Kill me with your closure. Your last line is as important as your opener. Make me sit back and sigh with your brilliant culmination.



Now, back to the grind, at http://alisontyler.blogspot.com




Thursday, 26 June 2014

A Taste of Passion - released today


A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book 1) is released today. 

Or you can try one of the FaceBook links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mischief-Books/186744244762441

This is the blurb: When baking entrepreneur Trudy Cole falls for celebrity chef Bill Hart, all is far from sweetness and light. Instead passion, betrayal and ambition makes for an explosive mix in the high stakes game of gourmet dining.

Trudy Cole is an aspiring chef with ambitions to own her own patisserie. When she encounters celebrity chef Bill Hart she finds the older man antagonistic but disconcertingly attractive. Sexual chemistry soon boils to an unbearable temperature and they become lovers.

But Trudy’s affair and ambitions for her own business become too hot to handle when she discovers that Bill has a wife. To make matters worse, her business partner and ardent admirer, Donny, threatens to destroy her patisserie and Bill Hart’s reputation.

At a stately home where Trudy wants to woo investors with her culinary masterpieces, the paths of all three players cross again and the heat is turned up to a much higher setting…


The following passage comes from early on in the story, when Trudy and Bill first meet:

It was only when the lights came back on that Trudy remembered William Hart was attractive. Disturbingly attractive. Admittedly, he was old enough to be her father. Taking into account the lined face and steel-grey hair she figured he was in his late forties or early fifties. But his age seemed immaterial.

            He was hot.

There was a timeless quality to William Hart that she had noticed when he delivered the seminar at her university. His diamond blue eyes shone with bright enthusiasm. His smile, set in a square and manly jaw, glinted with a boyish promise of inappropriate mischief. At the university she had thought he was physically imposing but, at the time, she had ascribed that to the fact he was standing on a podium, wearing a generously-cut suit beneath a double-breasted tweed overcoat. Now she could see his substantial presence came, not from his clothes, but from his broad and manly chest and his considerable height. From what she could glimpse beneath his white shirt and dark sport jacket, there didn’t appear to be any excess fat on his lean frame.

Her heartbeat had been slowing back to its normal rhythm.

The realisation that she was alone in Boui-Boui with the desirable William Hart sent it racing again. Muscles deep in her loins began to tingle with wanton and unbidden anticipation. She desperately willed herself to stop brooding on his handsomeness. He was likely married or in a relationship and she told herself it should be obvious that a man of his years would have no interest in her.

“This way,” he said, extending a hand.

She allowed him to hold her fingers, thrilling to his touch and hoping he couldn’t see that she was mesmerised at being in the presence of a respected idol. When he led her toward the kitchen she felt self-conscious about every step and how he might interpret her movements.

If she walked too close to him would he think she was needy or infatuated by his celebrity? If she stayed too far away would he think she had no interest in him? Or that she didn’t know who he was? Would it be less complicated, she wondered, to simply embrace him and devour him with kisses so he could see that she worshipped him?

That final idea made her smile.


It also made the muscles in her loins clench a little more hungrily.

***

For those of you who haven't yet read any of my fiction, copies of Beyond Temptation and Dragon Desire (written under the pseudonym Lisette Ashton) are currently available as free Kindle downloads from amazon.co.uk. If you get a chance to look at either of them I'm sure you'll enjoy.





Saturday, 21 June 2014

Five Tips from Amanda Fox


Five tips on writing erotica from Amanda Fox

1) When writing, take breaks often to refresh and reset.

2) Exercise. It'll help get the blood flowing to your brain. And it'll prevent love handles LOL. No really.

3) Leave some things to the imagination. Not every single thing needs to be said.

4) Edit, edit, edit. Then leave the piece for a few weeks (or longer) and go back and edit some more.

5) Read your work out loud, or have someone read it to you. It's a good way to see if things flow, and to find mistakes.

Amanda Fox is the author of many pieces of fiction including 'Once You Go Black' from Cole Riley's 2011 collection Too Much Boogie. More of Amanda's writing can be found on: http://thefurfiles.com/.