Girls Who Bite was my first anthology for Cleis Press. I had so much fun reading the many entries and working with the authors that I sent in a proposal for another! On Thursday, I got the email saying they wanted it! So, here are the details for any authors or aspiring authors out there! I can’t wait to read your stories!
Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for lesbian shapeshifter stories for a romantic erotica anthology entitled Beastly Babes.
The concept of shapeshifters—beings both human and animal—ignites our imaginations with visions of primal passions and insatiable hungers. Most commonly seen as dark, masculine demons, shapeshifters are in need of a metaphysical overhaul—a new feminine/Sapphic blending of physical power and inescapable desires.
Beastly Babes will re-envision common and not-so-common myths and deliver a fresh perspective from the storytellers. Traditional lycanthropes and feline familiars are welcome, if told with a fresh twist, but writers are encouraged to imagine greater, and perhaps explore more obscure, lesser-known mythologies from around the world to create inventive tales celebrating feminine power, lust, and erotic love. Concentration primarily focuses on the lesbian relationship, although ménage and secondary m/f depictions will be permitted. Published authors with an established shapeshifter world may use that setting for their original short story.
The stories may be as kinky or vanilla as the writer wants—but a deep sensuality should linger in every word. Exotic locations and scenarios are welcome. Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. We are seeking original stories.
How to submit: Prepare your 1,500 to 4,500 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font Word document with pages numbered (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required.
In your document at the top left of th epage, include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to cleisbeastlybabe@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. Delilah will respond to you in October 2011. The publisher has final approval over the manuscript.
Payment will be $50.00 USD and two copies of the published book upon publication.
About the editor: Ms. Devlin has published over eighty erotic stories in multiple genres and lengths. Her published print titles include Into the Darkness, Seduced by Darkness, Darkness Captured, Down in Texas, Texas Men and Ravished by a Viking. Her short stories are featured in Zane’s Purple Panties, and Cleis Press’s Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust, Passion, Carnal Machines, and Dream Lovers. She is published by Avon, Kensington, Harlequin, Atria/Strebor, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and Berkley. In Fall 2011, she debuts her first anthology with Cleis Press, Girls Who Bite.
Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at cleisbeastlybabe@gmail.com.
NOTE: If I receive the submission early enough and like it but it’s not quite right, there may be a chance to revise and resubmit. The key is to get the story in early!! DD
The genre poll ends tomorrow (see Thursday’s post for details). And the fairy journal contest (Tuesday’s entry) continues, so be sure to post today!
Humor’s always tough to write. It’s all the pacing of the scene. Also, humor doesn’t translate across cultures very well. So what’s funny to one person won’t be to another. I don’t worry about all that crap and usually just let go. The last time I wrote something that left me giggling hysterically was this little scene. Hope you enjoy it half as much. ~DD
“Ms. Devlin will have readers laughing one minute and screaming the next… Bad, Bad Girlfriend is a witty, heart pounding smoking hot read that is a must have.” 5 Angels, Fallen Angels
“Bad, Bad Girlfriend is just plain fun!… A great quickie from a great author.” 5 Stars, Just Erotic Romance
“My emotions ran wild while reading Bad, Bad Girlfriend… Don’t miss this mischievous woman’s attempts to secure her man’s love. I had a fantastic time reading Jolie and Gabe’s story.” 5 Silver Dragons, Veiled Secrets Reviews
Expect magic when one determined woman dons a legendary pair of red stilettos and bares body and heart to get her man’s attention…
Jolene’s a big, beautiful woman with an even bigger heart. But she’s become her police officer boyfriend’s favorite doormat and that’s so not working for her. It’s time for a little conversation, time to tell Mr. Happy Pants to “pee or get off the pot”.
Gabriel has seen what his profession does to marriages. He’s not willing to risk that kind of heartbreak. Besides, he likes what he has with Jolene. The woman is sex personified. So when Jolie tells him she won’t see him anymore if he’s not willing to commit, he’s shocked and angry.
With a girlfriend’s encouragement and the added confidence a certain pair of red stilettos gives her, Jolene arranges a special show at a strip club to prove to Gabe once and for all that she’s more woman than any man can handle, and if he doesn’t want the job, then she’ll find another lover who does.
Jolie heard the music, tried to catch the beat, but she’d never been so scared, so embarrassed in her life.
She knew she’d made a huge mistake the minute she’d entered the stripper’s dressing room. Lexie had ushered her in after Guppy, the skinny, bespectacled manager of the strip club, let them in the back door and showed them to the women’s dressing room. She already wore her costume under a tightly belted trench coat, but getting her first up-close look at the other women awaiting their turns on the stage made her lose her nerve.
She turned back toward the exit.
Lexie stood behind her, her arms crossed over her chest. “No you don’t. Not after I paid him a hundred dollars to let you do this!”
“You paid him?”
Lexie shrugged. “He prefers professionals, but he’s not above a bribe.”
The fairy journal contest continues. See Tuesday’s post for details. But be sure to post a comment here today for another chance to win! ~DD
Just a little inspiration to get you through the day. Sometimes, the eyes have it. 😉
Very interesting poll results…. Does it mean you don’t want more cowboys from me? Darn. But yay, for historical with paranormal aspects. I’d like to write more stories in the vein of First Knight. However, the poll doesn’t close for several more days. Things may change.
After being smothered in kids and dogs for days, I have a bit of room this morning to CLEAN HOUSE. It smells funky. Wet dog, mildew—we’ve had a very stormy week. More coming tonight as well. But I can’t wait until tomorrow to tackle some chores. Or maybe my anxiety is due to the fact I’ve found another way NOT to write.
We had another round of severe weather last night. The power popped off and on. Internet was hosed for hours! So I’m preposting this late Wednesday night so that there’s something there for you today (Thursday!). Remember! The contest for the journal continues. If you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, check out the post from two days ago.
I’ll be away until this afternoon. I’m hoping those flash flood warnings are more of a guideline than actual fact. I have to get to Little Rock for a doctor’s appointment. Ugh. I’m hoping it’s just a listen to my heart and any complaints I have. Maybe she’ll give me some kick-ass antibiotics to get rid of this respiratory infection I’ve had since the RT convention.
Maybe it’s me being lazy, but I’m going to make you do the thinking today. I’m running an unofficial poll, something I might use for my own project planning purposes. You may vote for two answers, and the poll closes Sunday!
Be sure to post a comment to let me know that you were here so that you’ll be entered in the contest for the fairy journal!
What genre of erotic romance would you like to see more of?
The contest for the pretty journal continues. See yesterday’s post for details! ~DD
Last night was exciting—wind causing the trees to bend and crack, thunder and lightning, tornado warnings… You get the picture. I had the red-headed hellion, the six-year-old and the two-year-old camped out in my basement as we listened to the weather radio. Then the power goes out. Luckily, I have a thing for candles too. They climbed into the bed down here and went to sleep. I stepped outside under the covered deck to watch. Mother Nature gave me quite a show. No funnel clouds, but lots of jagged lights.
So, not much sleep. I’m on my third cup of coffee and starting to feel alive again. 🙂
Today, what I’d like to do is tell you about a story that’s releasing in a little over a week. It’s my first Nocturne Bite for Harlequin. I’d love for it to be a success, because I’d like to do more of them.
The story isn’t one I would have conceived on my own. The concept was already born as part of Nocturne’s Time Raiders series. I was invited to write a Bite to continue the series and given a premise to work with. Or at least a historical/mythological figure to build a story around. I’m flexible like that. You know that about me if you’ve roamed my site before. I have little control over the direction of Bad Moon Rising, which is the story my readers have helped me plot every step of the way. Anyway, the figure I was given was Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons! Fun, right?
If the premise and the excerpt from The Warrior’s Touch intrigue you, click on the cover and head over to Amazon.com right now to pre-order this story! And I don’t have to tell you, you’re gonna love the hero, melt over the sex, and have a spanking good time.
Lieutenant Farideh Kalani expected her time-traveling assignment in ancient Scythia to be difficult, but fitting in with Amazon warriors is easy compared to being partnered with Sergeant First Class Caleb MacAvoy. The Texan soldier is infuriatingly smug and undeniably sexy. Then with one kiss, he awakens all Farideh’s desires. Now she’ll have to keep an eye on her mission and try to resist her attraction to Caleb. Because he’s the one man who might be able to breach the walls she’s built around her heart….
Farideh Kalani gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering as she felt herself being pulled one way and then another while spiraling downward. She arrived with a jolt, her thighs spread over the back of a large black stallion, her body bent over his neck as the two of them thundered across rolling hills, the horse’s hooves cutting into grass and stone. Which would have been a problem before the time jump, because she’d never ridden anything larger than a pony at the county fair. However, now she reached down to catch the trailing reins, and forced herself back, pulling at the stone bit in her mount’s mouth.
The horse gave a shrill whinny and a little buck, but Fari pressed her knees into his sides, and gradually he gentled, easing into a trot.
She grinned, then raised her head and breathed the clean, brisk air of ancient Scythia. Heavy gray storm clouds were rolling in from the south, whipping up a wind that carried the scent of the sea, and salt she could taste.
Glancing down, she noted she sat atop her horse with only a padded saddlecloth between her dark wool trousers and the animal’s warm back. Her boots were stuck in leather stirrups sewn to the saddlecloth. She wore an embroidered jacket trimmed in fur around the cuffs and neck, with a row of gold appliqués embossed with gryphons and lions along the hem. She slipped a gloved hand under her sleeve to check for the silver ESC cuff, her ticket home, and breathed a sigh of relief to feel its warmth against her skin.
Grasping the reins with confidence, she trusted the skill that had been implanted in her mind, along with her new knowledge of the geography around her.
If she didn’t make the fortress city of Tanais by nightfall, she’d be pitching a tent, of sorts, in the rain, tying together two cushioned saddlecloths with those leather stirrups.
Although she had the knowledge to construct the tent, she wasn’t eager to lie on the hard ground within the tiny shelter, huddled for warmth against her current companion.
Sergeant First Class Caleb McAvoy was already too smug and too sexy for her peace of mind. Read the rest of this entry »
I love to shop. Not for clothes or shoes or groceries. My thrills come from acquiring jewelry (junky and fine), office supplies (I know there’s a fetish in there somewhere), and anything of a medieval or paranormal bent. Which is precisely why I own two large jewelry boxes, why one wall of my office is crammed floor-to-ceiling with every imaginable office machine, stacks of notebooks and Post-its, and why the rest of my office has figurines and pictures of dragons, fairies, and knights cluttering up every surface.
My obsession has led to my friendship with a woman who owns a tiny specialty shop in town. She keeps an eye out for things she knows I’ll dig. This week, I came home with a grocery bag full of things I bought just to share with you. I had to have them all, but I have no where to store them. So I figure that if I offer one contest a week for some really random prizes that you might poke your head in the door pretty often to see what’s up, and I’ll have found a use for SOMETHING I’ve bought!
Here’s this week’s prize:
The journal is covered in a short velveteen; the pages are a nice thick stock; and the image is one of two female fairies, one light and one dark, the tips of their wings interwoven. Very pretty. And very, very hard for me give up because I want it!
What do you have to do to win? Just post comments wherever I am blogging—this includes my daily blogposts that show up on Facebook. The more times you post, the better your chances to walk away with this lovely journal.
So, post a comment here and you’re entered. Come visit me at Everything Erotic where I’ve posted a short story and you have a second chance! This contest will end next Tuesday when I’ll reach into my bag for the next random prize. Good luck!
Today, I’m hoping that I can unclutter my office and my mind.
I have a housekeeper coming to clean my place. Does that sound like the height of decadence? It is. But she’s inexpensive and a lot more thorough than I am, and when she’s done, somehow, it feels cleaner than if I did the work myself. While she runs the Hoover and mops, I’ll be decluttering my desk.
Not that I’ll give up a single dragon or fairy figurine, or King Kong hugging his NY skyscraper, or my Cinderalla and Sleeping Beauty Pez dispensers. Those aren’t clutter. They’re friends. Along with the small stuffed unicorn and carved stone alligator, frog, bear, wolf and elephant, they are things I can hold in my palm and caress when I’m running into trouble with my WIP (Work in Progress). When I stroke a thumb across their surfaces, they unlock dreams like a genie’s lamp.
The decluttering has to do with the stacks of papers I have laying on every surface—on the desk, the file cabinet, the printer—yes, even on the floor. I’ve been sick and have let more stack up than usual because I haven’t been able to concentrate. But no more excuses. I have to attack the stacks, then settle down to write some pages. I have books due. I’m late. Feel free to nag!
And woot! Riding a little high this morning. A reader plopped a brand new review up on Amazon for Pleasing Sir. “…It’s not Romance, though you will feel the pinch of love and desire found in some of the best of contemporary romances. This is erotica at it’s finest. There is a difference, and Delilah is the master and making that clear.
And if you’re inclined to hop to another blog today, I have a post on another site about my two April releases, Handy Men and Moonstruck. I’d love a comment or two or even just a wave so I don’t look like a loser. 🙂
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