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EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: BEST OF…

What a way to end the year! The latest additions to the steamy illustrious “Best of…” anthologies will resonate with you long after you’ve finished them! In Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4, award-winning editor Rachel Kramer Bussel has gathered the hottest sexy stories starring outspoken women who daringly pursue love and lust. Much like a fine wine the Best Gay Erotica series just keeps getting better with each passing year. Enjoy erotic stories about dominant men standing tall and powerful over their submissive, to dashing men with looks to kill for in Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 edited by Rob Rosen! Wait, it doesn’t stop there! Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 3 proves to be a successful addition to this body-tingling series—the gold standard for erotic lesbian fiction. Edited by award-winning editor Sacchi Green, this latest edition is sensual, inventive, and utterly breathtaking as it pushes lesbian lust and desire to new heights! So dress down and cozy up with any of these hot erotic additions! They’ll keep you warm all season long!

What makes these additions stand out from the rest? Find out from the editors themselves who sifted through piles of entries and selected the ones that truly captured the desired themes like Rachel Kramer Bussel of Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4:

The first three volumes of Best Women’s Erotica of the Year didn’t have official themes, but when I was compiling Volume 4, I decided I wanted stories on the themes of Outsiders and Risk. While on the surface those may seem incongruous, both spoke to me regarding current events and seemed urgently relevant. At a time when outsiders of many kinds are being ostracized, discriminated against, and shunned, I wanted to explore what being an outsider

feels like on a deeply personal level. I always want the authors I publish to turn readers on, but this time, I also want to make you think.

I left it to my authors to define what exactly an outsider means to them, and their characters. All of us have likely been outsiders at one time or another, depending on the circumstances. Outsiders may be able to learn something about themselves via insiders, and in the process enjoy some hot sex…Taking risks in the face of fear has certainly cropped up in past volumes, but the risks the characters take in these stories are heightened. Sometimes these risks are erotic in nature, like trying something new for the first time, for instance posing for an erotic calendar, as the heroine of “Take the Shot,” by Mica Kennedy. Sometimes the risk itself is a turn-on, such as the illicit but utterly arousing behavior of the naughty narrator in “The Dressing Room,” by Alessandra Torre.

Sometimes these risks, while sexual in nature, involve confronting aspects of these characters’ core selves that require a great amount of bravery. In “Her Invisible Prison,” by Jocelyn Dex, Eden faces a battle between her desire and her agoraphobia. Her steps out of that “prison”are hard fought and all the more exciting. And lest you think a story involving mental health can’t be scorching hot, Dex will surely prove you wrong. While passion and desire are at the heart of these tales, there’s more happening than simple arousal. There’s a little something for everyone, I’d like to think, within these pages…I hope, at least in some small way, this book entertains you and gives you inspiration to take the kinds of risks these characters do.

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Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 is available for purchase at all eBook retailers. Or feel free to purchase a copy at your local bookstore!

Amazon • iTunes • Nook • Google Play • Kobo

Rob Rosen of Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 4:

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my writing, I’m a romantic-comedy author by trade, frequently in the speculative genre. And so, whilst whittling—and since reading and enjoying what one is reading is oh-so subjective—I found myself choosing stories for you that fall into three categories: comedy/madcap, sci-fi/speculative, and general fiction, almost all of it of a romantic nature, a hundred percent of it of the high literary caliber that you’ve come to expect from this annual collection.

For comedy/madcap, there’s Clare London’s after-hours romp in a dentist’s office in “Open Up”; Nelson House’s “Dirty Tricks,” with its dirty double-crosses and sneaky Republican senator; Richard May’s naughty Hanukkah-present-filled “Eight Nights”; the farcical romp through the streets of Florence, “Renaissance Miracles,” by the superbly imaginative Michael Ampersant; and closing out the collection, Richard Michaels’s “Forward into the Past,” featuring a private dick you won’t soon forget.

Sci-fi/speculative takes center stage in Jordan Castillo Price’s vampiric-virus tour de force, “Appetite.” Kyle E. Miller chooses humanity over the divine in “The Temptation of the Gargoyle.” Vincent Meis’s “Blade of Grass” takes us on an unexpected journey into Turkey. And Michael Roberts has us howling with his cloning mishap tale, “Reflections.” But, of course, there’re even more stories to follow, all of them expertly written and deeply erotic, all by some of today’s best and brightest M/M writers, hailing from all over the United States, plus Canada, the United Kingdom, and France. So, sit back and relax—perhaps spread-eagle or on your knees, just as a suggestion—and enjoy Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 4!

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Best Gay Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 is available for purchase at all eBook retailers. Or feel free to purchase a copy at your local bookstore!

Amazon • iTunes • Nook • Google Play • Kobo

Sacchi Green of Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 3:

We open a book hoping to be taken somewhere—to faraway places, into the lives and inner thoughts of intriguing characters, or into times past or even unexplored depths of ourselves. If the book is classed as erotica, we also expect to be intensely stirred both sensually and emotionally. The beauty of an anthology is that we can expect to be taken in multiple directions, and meet an assortment of characters with a wide range of viewpoints.”

“Here are some hints as to where the stories I chose will take you, and what you may find there. Could there be a better start than the fantasy-fulfillment story, “Ninjutsu,” set on a plane high above the Pacific en route from Tokyo to Honolulu? And what could feel more real than longtime lovers waking in the “Morning Fog” of San Francisco? How about touring the South of France in “Perfume,” a massage in a Moroccan public bath in “Fuck Me Like a Canadian,” a cabin “Where There’s Smoke” in the snowy North Country, and the surveillance area above the ceiling of a Las Vegas casino where “Oliver: Twisted” begins?”

While most of the stories have contemporary settings, two more are set, at least partially, in the past. If you’re old enough to have been swept up in the rock and blues bands frenzy of the ’60s and ’70s, you may catch the significance of September 1970, and even if you aren’t that old, you’ll find out in “Jani-Lyn’s Dragon.” On another tack, “The Night Shift” proves to be just the right time for accidental phone sex. Then the familiar professor/ former student theme of “Rules” travels in unexpected directions and gets as steamily entertaining as they come, while the queer bookstore in “Rainbow’s End” provides an ideal place for a hesitant would-be writer to find just what she hardly dared hope for…Yes, all of these stories include hot, intense sex, in its many splendored manifestations… A word of caution: you may not get jet lag from this journey, but a suitable recovery period between stories is highly recommended. Trust me.

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Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 4 is available for purchase at all eBook retailers. Or feel free to purchase a copy at your local bookstore!

Amazon • iTunes • Nook • Google Play • Kobo

Tags: anthology, author, BDSM, bedroom, bisexual, book, cleis press, collection, ebook, editor, erotica, excerpt, fantasy, fiction, gay, kink, lesbian, lgbt, love, men, new publication, new title, queer, relationships, romance, sex, sex life, sexuality, short stories, start publishing, submission, women, writer, writing

Getting to Know a Real-Life Unicorn: editor Frank Lowe (June’s Exclusive Excerpt)

The below passage is excerpted from the “Editor’s Note” in Raised by Unicorns: Stories from People with LGBTQ+ Parents edited by Frank Lowe, which will publish on Tuesday, June 12, 2018.

…

Hi, I’m Frank Lowe, a forty-one-year-old divorced gay dad. Some of you may know me from my snarky, acerbic Twitter persona “@GayAtHomeDad.” Others may be familiar with my writing for publications such as Huff Post, Gays with Kids, and The Advocate online, among many more. When I started tweeting in 2012, my original intent was to blow the roof off gay parenting stigmas. I used humor to diffuse what was a newer concept then (times have changed in five years), and it worked. I amassed over a hundred thousand followers who can now say they know at least one gay dad.

I used that platform to segue into what I really wanted to do—help others in the LGBTQ+ community, specifically youth. Through my writing, I opened my life wide open and gave people a true perspective into what it means to be a gay parent. Most readers have discovered there’s not really a big difference. Sure, I might put a little more air into styling my kid’s hair, but that’s about it. Needless to say, my son is my life, and I’ve dedicated myself to him becoming the best human possible.

…

Six million and counting. A huge number, right? Hard to believe when you consider we’re discussing U.S. citizens who have at least one LGBTQ+ parent. But that’s reality. These people can’t even type “my moms” or “my dads” into Microsoft Word without it wanting to add an unnecessary possessive apostrophe—i.e. “my mom’s” (try it, you’ll be amazed). Whether they want to be or not, they are an extension of the LGBTQ+ community. Terms such as “queerspawn” have been used to describe them, but personally I wouldn’t refer to my son as that. In fact, I don’t think he needs a label. He can be what he wants to be.

…

Prior to our son’s birth, I longed for any kind of information about gay adoption and raising a baby. It was 2009, and there were a few popular options. Every night, I’d be awake until three a.m. reading, to absorb all I could. Eventually I wanted something I was unable to find: the viewpoint from kids with LGBTQ+ parents. Now, that isn’t to say there weren’t choices available (there were and are). I just couldn’t locate them easily, and time was not on my side.

…

Fast forward to now—2018—he’s eight, and I’ve never been more proud of a human being in my life. He’s been an inspiration to me in infinite ways, including what you’re reading right now. I was gifted with this fantastic opportunity, and can finally give voices to those who have been relatively silent or swept under the rug.

“Raised by Unicorns” is obviously a take on the old adage “raised by wolves,” and I couldn’t find it a more fitting title. Not that I necessarily consider myself a unicorn (well, okay, sometimes), but the LGBTQ+ community comprises unique individuals and therefore, it seemed entirely appropriate. My goal was to present a diverse anthology to you, full of different life experiences. These stories run the gamut, and that is the beauty of it all. You may notice that this book is a little heavier on the L and G, but I feel that is a snapshot of the time we are living in and is constantly evolving.

…

All I hope you take away from this book is empathy. These people are beautiful souls who have faced adversity since they were born. Some of the stories might be what you imagine, and others will floor you. Regardless, in a century or so, this will be history, and I thank you for being part of it just by taking all of this in.

Raised by Unicorns is available for preorder/purchase at all major retailers in print and digital formats. Or feel free to order a copy at your local independent bookstore!

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Tags: adoption, anthology, biography, book, book excerpt, book sample, Briggs, children, cleis press, collection, community, ebook, family, family structure, family values, frank lowe, gay parent, gay parenting, gayathomedad, Gays with Kids, Huff Post, lesbian, lgbt, lgbtq, love, memoir, narrative non-fiction, new book, nuclear family, parenting, parents, personal essays, queerspawn, raised by unicorns, raising kids, short stories, The Advocate, trans, transgender, Twitter, unicorn

Happy Masturbation Month!

Who doesn’t love a little self love? Cleis Press is here to help get your engines roaring this Masturbation Month with a giveaway for a signed copy of The Ultimate Guide to Solo Sex: All You Need to Know about Masturbation by the wonderful Jenny Block! Get rubbin’! I mean readin’!

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Tags: book, books, cleis press, contest, free books, giveaway, guide, how to, jenny block, masturbation month, self love, self pleasure, signed copy, ultimate guide to solo sex

February’s Exclusive Excerpt

Why hello there again, erotica lovers!

This month we have an extra special morsel for you to savor. Whether you’ve seen her in action, read one of her articles, or seen her win an award (of which she has won MANY, most recently at the AVN’s and XBIZ), you’ll know that Joanna Angel has that special something that most stars (or even people for that matter) rarely have. She’s not only unnaturally, naturally super attractive, but she has the brains and the sense of humor to match.

It’s no wonder that this insanely cool, down-to-earth renaissance woman wanted to adventure into writing erotica. And let me tell you, I am sure glad she did! If a feel-good comedy on FOX could have TONS of explicit scenes, there is no doubt in my mind that her debut novel, Night Shift: A Choose-Your-Own Erotic Fantasy, would be the font of information and sex through which the first season flowed. Funny… Arousing… Oddly reminiscent of one’s youth… Here’s a little taste of what you can look forward to.

Happy reading 😉

“Taryn, are you a unicorn?”

Ha!

“Oh, ha, ha, no I’m not special or anything. I’m just, you know, doing my job. Unless, you were asking if I was literally a unicorn—but I don’t think those actually exist.”

Damn it, I was losing her! I can’t ruin this now, I’ve gotta think of something clever to say.

But before I could utter another word, she leaned in and kissed me. Her big dark lips tasted like peaches, because of her lip-gloss. I was in shock. I could smell her perfume, it was a bubble-gum scent, but a sophisticated one. I could feel her soft skin, silky but almost plastic.

“You’re new in this lifestyle aren’t you?” She smirked at me.

“Yeah, kind of. I guess you can say that.”

“Why don’t you join us?” she said, and then she kissed me again, more intensely this time. With her silky dress, giant breasts, and fake hair, it felt like kissing a Barbie doll. It was definitely nice fake hair, that moved like hair and looked like hair, but I could feel little pieces of tape in her head where the hairpiece attached.

Would Amanda be proud of me if I joined? I got more aroused by imagining this as some kind of sexual test I had to pass in order to get her to come back, a hurdle in an obstacle course of cock and pussy that I had to conquer to get the prize. I was up for the challenge.

I nodded a hopefully seductive “Yes” to answer her question.

Chuck returned with a toy in his hand; I’m so glad he picked that one, now that I was (hopefully) joining in. I’d always wanted to use one of those, but I never thought I’d have the chance. Chuck and Cherise scanned each other, Cherise tilting her head toward me, raising an eyebrow in an almost sinister look, as if asking “shall we bring a mouse for us cats to play with?” Chuck looked at me seriously for the first time that night, observing my body like a chef picking out his meat for the night’s special. Finally, he nodded his approval; they came over, each grabbed one of my hands, and guided me into the room.

To read about Chuck grabbing a riding crop, turn to page 177.

To read about Chuck grabbing a strap-on, turn to page 184.

Tags: author, AVN, book, choose-your-own, cleis press, erotic, erotica, fantasy, fiction, Joanna Angel, literature, new author, new book, Night Shift, reading, riding crop, strap on, unicorn, writing, XBIZ

Writer & Editor Sacchi Green Talks About Her Newest Anthology

This weekend on the website Women and Words, writer and editor, Sacchi Green talked about her newest erotic lesbian collection Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms which is coming out in a few weeks. In this guest post, she also talks about her past with writing speculative fiction and fantasy, as well as, her inspiration and drive for creating an anthology solely on lesbian centered fairy tales and fantasy stories. Below Sacchi talks about the different elements of the fantasy and erotica genres that each writer brought to the book:

For Witches, Princesses, and Woman at Arms: Erotic Lesbian Fairy Tales I wanted erotic romance and wild adventure with women who use their wits and/or weapons and come together in a blaze of passion. These twelve wonderful writers (I’m in there, too, though not necessarily wonderful) gave me all I hoped for and more. Some adapted traditional tales, and some updated old stories to contemporary times, not merely changing the gender of a character but making the female aspect essential. Some created original plots with a fairy tale sensibility, while others wrote with just a subtle aura of fantasy. Their heroines are witches, princesses, brave, resourceful women of all walks of life, and even a troll and a dryad. There are curses and spells, battles and intrigue, elements of magic and explorations of universal themes, and, yes, sex, sensuality and true love, all bound skillfully together into complex and multi-layered stories.

Now make sure you head over to Women and Words to read the rest of her post and to enter for a chance to win a free copy of Witches, Princesses, and Women at Arms!

Tags: anthology, book, collection, editor, erotica, fairy tales, fantasy, lesbian, lgbt, new title, princesses, queer, Sacchi Green, short stories, witches, women, writer

Call for Submissions: Raised by Unicorns

Are you the child of LGBT parent or parents? Are you a fantastic writer with a keen sense of wit and retrospection with a unique, true story to tell? If so, you now have a chance to be a contributor in Raised By Unicorns, a new book by America’s favorite “Gay at Home Dad”, Frank Lowe.

Raised By Unicorns: True Stories of People Who Grew Up With LGBT Parents will be published by powerhouse Cleis Press, and aims to be an anthology that reflects on the experience of being raised by a gay, lesbian, transgender, or otherwise queer parent or parents. While stories of promise and love are of great appeal, we also seek tales of discrimination, defeats, and setbacks. This volume ultimately seeks to portray a true representation of this particular niche of the human experience.

In order to be considered, you must have a US mailing address and your story must be 3,000 to 5,000 words. Potential contributors need not identify with a particular gender. All submissions are due by July 16, 2017 and can be submitted to Frank Lowe directly at rbubook@gmail.com.

Frank Lowe is a contributor to The Advocate and is a self-proclaimed “Stepford Gay”. He has an active YouTube channel and can be followed on Twitter as @GayatHomeDad.

Tags: author, bisexual, book, frank lowe, gay, lesbian, lgbt, queer, submission, transgender, true story, writer, writing

How to Maintain Love in the Face of Stress

By Keston and Andrea Ott-Dahl, authors of Saving Delaney.

The kids are fighting with each other and trying to get our attention to tell on the other, the baby is sitting on the top of the dining room table holding the salt shaker upside down (very amused and laughing as all the salt is pouring off the table and onto the floor), our big dog Joplin is freaking out as she is creating a ruckus trying to squeeze out the dog door and can’t fit because she has the kitchen trash can lid around her neck (all the kitchen trash is scattered on the floor) and our little dog Molly is in a barking match with the neighbors dog! By the way, the TV is blaring cartoons in the background.

Meanwhile, Andrea and I have to work, cook dinner, clean house, drive carpool to school, dance and theater lessons not to mention the baby’s three therapies every week! Oh, and we have our blog deadlines that must be done by Monday.

This scene is the norm at almost any given hour at the Ott-Dahl house! Sounds chaotic, and trust us — it is! It would be so easy to get lost in our daily grinds and unconsciously begin neglecting our relationship – we are not perfect. There are times when we have to put ourselves and our relationship “in check.”

The bottom line is we know we have a good thing and do not want to lose what we have, but it takes commitment and work. Our established family routines, traditions and rules help. They not only make things predictable and fun for the kids, but also ensures that we get our adult time, the coveted hours for just us.

Where do we find time for each other, for love and for sex? The majority of our time spent is “family time” or “work time,”, but we make sure that we have the time to connect with each other.

These are some of the things we do to keep our love fresh and alive!

We are committed. The first fast hard rule is that we are committed to making our relationship a priority. We never give up, we know the grass isn’t greener on the other side and we both are on the same page.

We have an amazing sex life! While fatigue wins over our moods at times, we rarely go for more than a week without sex.

I just can’t stress enough (which is why we list romantic sex as #2, even though I believe it runs a close tie with #1) how important romantic connection is especially during sex. You MUST make time for it and I am not talking about just going through the motions of having sex, but going through the E-motions of having sex. Connect.

While the term making love may seem corny, it’s corn that keeps the spark in relationships.

If things seem to become mundane, we mix it up – take a trip to Good Vibes (a female friendly sex toy shop), spend a weekend away, read erotica to each other or just get silly and get playful.

We understand and practice the Five Languages of Love. Andrea and I practice Gary Chapman’s Five Languages of Love. It’s easy! We know what each other needs to feel fulfilled and loved. Whether it’s Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Gifts, Quality Time or Physical Touch we take steps to make sure the others “love bucket” is filled.

And guess what, it’s OK to ask, “How is your love bucket today Babe? What do you need to fill your love bucket?” I know this sounds silly, but it can be so important for your relationship. Especially if you have gotten yourselves stuck in a rut, are having communication breakdowns or find yourselves lacking fulfillment.

We are committed to having “Date Nights” or a monthly “Get-A-Way”. We never stop “dating” each other. This is our favorite! We typically plan a date night at least once a month when the kids spend the night with their grandparents or friends.

We are on a fixed income and extremely frugal, so Andrea scours the Internet for local deals on Yelp, Groupon or from one of our frequent member clubs.

Our favorite is our hotel getaways. We typically do not drive more than an hour away, but our nights away staying at a hotel near San Francisco or near a beach seem like we are as far away as Hawaii! Sometimes we never even leave the hotel.

Some of our favorite dates have been: wine tasting, using buy-one-get-one free restaurant vouchers, hikes up in Tilden Park and romantic nights on our own private island on our houseboat (sounds luxurious doesn’t it? Remember I said we are frugal? We traded an old jet ski for the houseboat, fixed it up and now we have a vacation home out on the California Delta).
Next we are planning on a painting class!

We have our kids (if you have them) on routines, routines routines! Our time is our time and the kids know this. After dinner the older kids have their “personal down time” which means they can watch TV for an hour and then its reading or playing on their own until bed time. They know to leave us to unwind after dinner. It’s a coveted rule in our house.

And the baby? The baby usually falls asleep around 7:30 so that leaves plenty of time for “us,” that is if we are not too tired.

Even just spending time together; watching a movie, holding hands, cuddling on the couch while drinking a glass of wine or eating one of Andrea’s favorite desserts (she is a dessert-a-holic) just the two of us helps us stay connected.

We accept each other “as is.” It’s not possible to love everything about your partner; they are messy – you are neat, she works too many hours, has a mullet, picks her nose in public – whatever!

As long as our actions or tendencies are not disrespectful to our relationship we embrace – unconditionally—the overall “package” that is our partner. This may mean shifting your focus away from your partner’s imperfections and towards the qualities you like and appreciate.

We work on projects together. We love accomplishing our goals! Together we are a powerful team and one of our favorite things to do together is to work on projects. Whether it be tiling our kitchen, painting our bedroom or building a play structure (by the way we found one for FREE on Craigslist) we always have a sense of “togetherness” and team when we complete our projects. Projects actually DO bring us closer together.

Look, relationships ebb and flow. There is a reason long term couples describe their marriages as hard work. It’s not always going to be easy, we all go through hard times but remaining committed to not just staying together but “staying in love” can be very rewarding.

Every couple goes through trials and tribulations – I call it “storming to norming”.

What matters most is how you work together to stay connected and strong.

Keston and Andrea Ott-Dahl are the authors of Saving Delaney, the true story of how they became parents “by accident” to a very special girl with Down syndrome. Saving Delaney comes out April 12th and can be pre-ordered here.

Tags: book, delaney, love, new title, saving