The Four Year Rule

Hello! And thanks to Delilah for hosting me today!

Excuse my excessive use of exclamation points today, my book just came out this morning and I’m pretty excited. I mean, I know as an author I’m going to be excited about every book, but this is my first book in my first series, and it’s about something I really love.

Tattoos.

I know, looking at me you’d never guess I like a little ink, would you? I knew at a young age, probably around fourteen, that I wanted tattoos. Thankfully I did not share this almost certain knowledge with my parents. They’re still reeling from a very recent revelation that I have tattoos. And by recent, I mean they found out about a month ago, and I’ve had them since I was twenty-one.

There’s something about tattoos, the expression of art and personality on one’s very skin that’s always fascinated me. I knew from an early age what I wanted my first tattoo to be, but at about sixteen, I recognized that I was young and stupid and prone to making rash decisions. Somewhere in that time period I came up with a rule.

The rule.

The four year rule.

It’s simple really. I have to want a tattoo for four years before I get it. My reasoning has always been that if I can settle on an image for four years with only minor tweaking, it must be something I really want and will be happy with in the long run. A big part of this is also getting an artist who can not only execute what I want but also bring it to live on the skin.

To date I’ve gotten five (or seven depending on who you ask) tattoos. With the exception of one, the four year rule has held steady. The one that was not planned in detail was planned in spirit. I don’t suggest people get matching tattoos or names typically, but my brother and I did get matching tattoos located on our under arm. A very sensitive place!

So what tattoos do I have? I have what’s called a backpiece, one big tattoo that stretches from my hips to my shoulders. A half-sleeve, which is a single tattoo that goes from my shoulder to just above my elbow. My sibling tattoo that’s about the size of my palm. In the picture above you can see my two pair of tattoos. I have Hebrew on each shoulder, and in the hollow on each shoulder I have half of the claddagh. Each tattoo means something. I’m a fan of doing tattoos that mean something or tell a story. It’s always fun to be approached by a complete stranger interested in the stories on my skin. I guess in a way, ink was the first medium in which I published a book.

I have quite a few in the works for the future. I want to get my left half-sleeve done, and a smattering of smaller tattoos, only two of which have met the required four year rule. So who knows, maybe next year I’ll be sporting some new ink?

So what about you? Do you have tattoos? Do you like them? Do you want them?

Tell me about your tattoo dreams! One commenter will win an ebook copy of my book, Under His Skin.

Sidney Bristol

It can never be said that Sidney Bristol has had a ‘normal’ life.  She is a recovering roller derby queen, former missionary, and tattoo addict. She grew up in a motor-home on the US highways (with an occasional jaunt into Canada and Mexico), traveling the rodeo circuit with her parents. Sidney has lived abroad in both Russia and Thailand, working with children and teenagers. She now lives in Texas where she splits her time between a job she loves, writing, reading and belly dancing.

Website *~* Twitter *~* Facebook

Under His Skin, So Inked #1, Pricked Series   Ellora’s Cave | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

A woman who doesn’t believe she deserves love…

Toe-curling kisses and enough sex to fill a weekend were all Pandora wanted from a fling with her teenage crush. She’s never forgotten how he played the knight in shining armor to her damsel in distress. She’s ready to say thank you in several naughty ways, so long as she can walk away when it’s over with her heart intact.

A man moving on from tragedy…

Brian has no intention of allowing the feisty tattoo artist to leave him after one taste. He hasn’t had enough of her inked curves. The packaging might have changed, but Pandy is the woman he hasn’t been able to excise from his memory. He’s ready to put together a new life, one that includes her. But he’s not the only one vying for her attention. Someone else wants her, dead or alive.

Pandora swirled the glass of Tuaca and downed it in three gulps. The smooth brandy slid down her throat and sent warm fuzzies coursing through her body. She couldn’t get drunk fast enough.

“Hey.”

A weight settled against her waist. She squeezed her eyes shut, chanting, No, no, no! Read the rest of this entry »

Please pass this along to all your writer friends out there! ~DD

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Sex Objects: Hot He-Man Erotic Romance for Women
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Publisher: Cleis Press in Fall 2013
Deadline Extended: October 12, 2012

SEX OBJECTS: HOT HE-MAN EROTIC ROMANCE FOR WOMEN is open to all authors.

Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for hetero “super alpha” stories for a romantic erotica anthology tentatively entitled: SEX OBJECTS: HOT HE-MAN EROTIC ROMANCE FOR WOMEN.

What is it about heroes like Superman, Iron Man or Thor that revs our engines like no other? Is it the suit? The manly physique? Or is it the courage they display, wading in where others fear to go, to save the damsel, the city, the Earth?

Are there real-life heroes who inspire the same lustful fascination? Kickass iconic heroes who enter danger zones in the name of duty, honor, country—or maybe love—who conjure images of hard, chiseled bodies, deadly glares and camouflaged features?

Sex Objects will seek stories that satisfy the reader who craves the romantic idea of that “super alpha” man. The stories will be contemporary. While traditional themes are likely to be featured, writers are encouraged to imagine greater in order to create tales that, while featuring this iconic hero, may also surprise.

Imagine the Navy SEAL sent on a suicide mission; the damaged Army Ranger home from war; the para rescue team member jumping into frigid waters; a SWAT team member entering a human trafficker’s den… These “super alpha” heroes can be military members and based in far-flung places around the world or the smoke-jumper living next door. Then imagine the romantic possibilities of being held against that massively muscled chest by a man whose mission is to protect and serve…

Published authors with an established “super alpha” 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 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 the page, include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 words or less bio in the third person to sexobjectsmanlyerotica@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 in January 2013. The publisher has final approval over the stories included in 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 a hundred erotic stories in multiple genres and lengths. Her published print titles include Into the Darkness, Seduced by Darkness, Darkness Burning, Darkness Captured, Down in Texas, Texas Men, Ravished by a Viking, and Enslaved 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, Dream Lovers, Lesbian Cops, Best Erotic Romance, and Girl Fever. She is published by Atria/Strebor, Avon, Berkley, Black Lace, Ellora’s Cave, Harlequin, Kensington, Mischief, Running Press and Samhain Publishing. In Fall 2011, she debuted her first anthology with Cleis Press, Girls Who Bite. In 2012, Cleis Press releases She Shifters and Cowboy Lust.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at sexobjectsmanlyerotica@gmail.com.

What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing On A Bookshelf Like This?

Wow. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that line.

And usually from my own mouth. To myself.

Yes, I admit it, I talk to myself.

As an erotica author in an ultra-conservative world—living as it were, a double life—you can see why I might turn to myself for companionship. Why I might occasionally wonder—why erotica?

The fact of the matter is, I love it. And not just because I get to think about sex all day and research sex all day and Google sex all day and pin sex-a-licious pictures of hot men on my Pinterest page all day—although there are perks.

I LOVE erotica because it is a genre within which almost all other genres fit.

I’ve written lots of other genres—romance and women’s fiction and sci-fi and fantasy. I am so all over the map that a very successful writer friend once sat me down and said, “Sabrina, dear. Pick one!”

The thought appalled me. I didn’t want to pick one. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my natural life in Regency England wearing gloves up to my elbows and sitting through wretched dinners with overblown Barons who spat in my soup when they sputtered.

I liked visiting, though.

What I really wanted, more than anything, was to write a Regency Romance. And then move on. Maybe a Medieval legend. And then a Viking adventure. And then an epic fantasy. And a mythological fairy tale. A creepy sci-fi or a sexy space opera. A pirate yarn.

Have I mentioned I have ADD?

The problem with being this kind of flibbertigibbet as a writer is that readers have silly little things called expectations. And unmet expectations will KEEL you as a writer. You gotta write what your readers want or they will stop buying your books. There are plenty of other authors out there just panting for the opportunity to please them.

Trust me, I’ve Googled them all.

The fact of the matter is, in the publishing world we are not selling books as much as brand. And to have a brand you have to have an identity, something that consistently satisfies your customer. Brand consistency (in content and quality) on an author’s part will equate to brand loyalty in a customer. If your identity resembles Sybil’s, you may have a problem keeping your customers happy. Folks you beguiled by your sweet soft romance may take umbrage when your heroine shows up in clown makeup with a butcher knife in her hand and starts jabbing your hero.

Sadly, my friend was right. You cannot write all over the map…at least not under the same pen name with the same brand.

Unless you stumble upon the illusive unifying brand.

“What the hell is that?” you may ask, especially if you studied marketing, because it’s a concept I just made up.[i]

A unifying brand is a brand that supersedes and saturates all other brands. It is an element of a product that successfully translates to like products and links the diverse threads. So while I write erotic romance as Sabrina York, I don’t lose my identity if I sneak over to Ellora’s Cave’s Shivers line and write a horrific erotic horror featuring an alien plant with very disturbing reproductive habits…or over to the Aeon line and write my sexy space opera. Readers will follow me. And hey, I may pick up some new readers who like my writing enough to follow me back to Asgard.

Sabrina York is my brand, my identity. Erotica is my unifying brand.

What my readers expect when they buy one of my books is sizzling sex and lots of it. They want twists and turns and characters that are going to make their heart flip-flop and make them get all restless. They want something that’s gonna make them stop reading and hunt down some double A batteries or a man or a kitchen whisk or something.

They don’t care if the action happens in Regency England, on a pirate ship in the Caribbean or on a barren moon in the crab nebula.

So how did a nice girl like me end up on a bookshelf like this?

Because on this bookshelf, I can be everything I want to be, and still be me.

Also, I love to write about sex.

Keep it hot, baby!

Blog Talk Radio

I was the guest at Lette’s Chat this week. Carlette asked me questions about writing, we talked books, etc. If you’d like to listen to the interview, here’s the link: Lette’s Chat

Three New Releases

A busy week for me, huh? In case you missed the announcements, here are the three new books I’ve added:

Shapeshifters—beings both human and animal—ignite our imaginations with visions of primal passions and insatiable hungers. Most commonly seen as dark, masculine demons, these sixteen stories investigate shapeshifter myths from around the world, and add fur and claws to a fresh girl-on-girl blending of physical power and inescapable desires.

Embrace your wild child as you journey through worlds of unexpected delights with some of today’s hottest erotic romance authors, including Sacchi Green, Christine d’Abo, Adele Dubois and Myla Jackson. Fly atop the Tower of London in Paisley Smith’s “The Night Crow.” In Anna Meadows’ “Verde,” feel the burn of a hot Mexican summer. Experience the raw lash of a dragon’s tail in “Scorched Retribution,” then linger in the sensual delights of a furry convention in “She’s Furry Yiffy”.

Prepare to be embraced inside the warm, feathered wings of a phoenix, race through a rain forest morphing from tiger to kingfisher, and watch your lover surrender her seal’s pelt to walk hand-in-hand with you along a cold and lonely shore. In She Shifters, love comes running, slithering, flying—in all shapes of desire.

Gus Taggert knows a setup when he sees one. When one of his police officer buddies sends him on a doughnut run to one particular doughnut shop, Cornucopia, he hesitates. It’s too frilly and pink. However, the woman behind the counter serves him more than a couple dozen gourmet doughnuts, she gives him a mini-lesson in submission%mdash;something he’s eager to learn more about. When she orders him to see her that night at the BDSM club, La Forge, he’s more than eager to obey.

Newly vetted Domme, Aislinn Darby, has a sub she’s eager to take for a test run. The large, burly cop is the kind of alpha guy she’s been dying to tie up and spank. However, after she takes him through his paces, she finds herself more than willing to let him take control, something she hasn’t enjoyed with a man before. Gus’s brand of loving is addictive, but now she’s doubting herself and her own ability to control a scene. She has to have him back for one more go, only this time, she’s going to do it with a crowd around them to ensure he doesn’t forget who’s in charge. She bribes him into submission. Accept her dictates, and he can have her any way he wants as reward.

What Gus wants is Aislinn in the middle of a scene he orchestrates himself with the help of three of his best friends.

From National Bestselling Author, Delilah Devlin, and Amazon Bestseller, Paisley Smith, comes LICKS, a collection of eight scrumptious lesbian tales, ranging from succulent and sensual to tempting and taboo.

Climb aboard a Harley with a butch beauty in “Riding Bitch”. Satisfy your craving for unrepentant girl-on-girl sex in “The Out-of-Towner”. Travel back in time to 18th century Paris in “Bordello”. A sexy femme submits in “The Hired Hand”. Celebrate a first lesbian encounter in “My Best Friend’s Birthday” and take a wild ride with your favorite toy in “The Only Game in Town”.

These irresistible stories and more invite the reader to savor that delectable flavor of the ultimate in lesbian erotica.

Contests

Don’t forget! The Pretty Pendant contest continues! Click on the link and follow the rules! Basically, all you have to do to enter is keep on posting! I’ll choose a winner this Tuesday!

Yesterday’s winner of a free download from among my Ellora’s Cave backlist is…Kimberly Hoefs! Kimberly, congrats! And send me an email with your choice of downloadable stories from my Ellora’s Cave backlist.

Sunday Report Card

Remember back in May when I told you I have 18 projects to get out the door by January 2d? The current list looks like this:

4 3 full-length novels (2 1 paranormal suspense, 2 BDSM)  — Shattered Souls, done!
3 1 novellas (1 Delta Heat, 1 Western, 1 TBD) — Delta Heat: Fournicopia, and Laying Down the Law done!
3 2 short stories — “Red Dawn”, done!
2 1 anthologies I have to edit — Smokin’ Hot Firemen done!
4 novels to extensively edit & expand (it’s a secret!)
1 novella to extensively edit and publish — Dragon’s Desire, edited! Publishing soon!
1 short story anthology to edit and publish — Licks, done!

Likely, I’ll be adding one more thing to the list. Cleis Press has given the green light to another anthology. This one filled with yummy Super Alpha males (think SEALs, Delta Force, SWAT, Smoke Jumpers, etc). I’ll be working on getting a “Call for Submissions” out the door early this week!

Also this week, I knuckle down to work on the next full-length novel. Send me good thoughts, wishes, vibes, prayers. I’m having a hard time starting. Have to push past the opening and get into the sexy middle. I’m sure it will come to me as soon as I get my hero and heroine horizontal. 🙂

So, one of the questions I, and I’m sure every author out there gets asked, is where we get our ideas from. My answer is usually “how do you make the ideas stop?” but for my latest release, Aries Revealed, there were a few specific triggers. I’ve already mentioned on the blog tour (redzworld stop) that the film Soldier with Kurt Russell laid a major seed for the Zodiac series (and, as it happens, the species idea for the Sargosians from Taming the Wildcat) but Soldier just laid the seed. It wasn’t until a friend showed me this image from Magic Mike (of course, I didn’t have a clue what it was at the time)

So, after I stopped drooling on the keyboard (this friend has a habit of sending me images like this just to see me stop what I’m doing and drool. Her favourite subjects are Alex Pettyfer and Jensen Ackles *whimpers* Both of which I am extremely susceptible to, and ceases word production immediately) I started to think about strippers in a sensible, writerly type of way. Okay, okay…AFTER I got over thinking about Channing Tatum and Alex Pettyfer taking their clothes off, I started thinking about things sensibly and just how I could use a stripper character in my cyborg series. I love convoluted storylines and new angles on things so it got me to thinking what if the stripper with the cyborg act really was a cyborg? He’s pretending to play a human who plays a cyborg? The idea was just too much fun NOT to write and thus, Aries Revealed was born!

I would like to point out that there was a second image sent to me shortly after the first, but this one just shorted out my brain so I can’t really claim it helped with the creation of Aries any. But it provided a good hours viewing pleasure 😉

So, now I’ve gone around the houses and up the garden path, let me leave you with some info on the story our lovely lads from Magic Mike inspired!

Sometimes the best place to hide, is in plain sight…

Johnny makes a living on the strip circuits. His most popular routine? The Aries 7000. Bronzed and oiled, he pretends to be the scourge of the universe, one of the deadly and outlawed zodiac cyborgs. But Johnny isn’t really a stripper playing a cyborg. He’s a cyborg playing a stripper.

Milly, a freighter captain, has had a thing for the sexy stripper for months. But when Johnny, the subject of many of her hottest fantasies, asks her out to dinner, she runs. All is not lost, however; a chance encounter yields an Aries 7000 sexbot, hers for a weekend of pleasure.

It seems too good to be true. Sex with the man of her dreams without risking her heart. But Milly’s bot has some secrets…secrets that could save her life when the past returns to haunt her.

Available from: Ellora’s Cave | Amazon | Amazon UK | ARe

Suffering the curse of eternal curiosity Mina never tires of learning new skills which has led to Aromatherapy, Corsetry, Chain-maille making, Welding, Canoeing, Shooting, and pole-dancing to name but a few.

A full time author and cover artist, Mina can usually be found hunched over a keyboard or graphics tablet, frantically trying to get the images and words in her head out and onto the screen before they drive her mad. She’s addicted to coffee and Nutella on toast.

Where to find Mina…

Twitter
Facebook

Don’t worry if you try to click on the widget below and it doesn’t work. If you click on the picture, you can head over to where it really does! I posted the picture so you’d know about tonight! I’ll be the live guest at Lette’s Chat, an online radio talk show, at 8 PM ET. You’re welcome to call in questions, but if you miss the chat, I’ll post a link on my site so you can listen in and hear what happened! 🙂

Is there anything you’d like me to work into the conversation? Something you’re dying to know?

[Sorry–photos removed!]

To check the names of the three winners from yesterday’s blogfest,
see the top of yesterday’s blog! ~DD

Thanks so much to Delilah for inviting me on her blog today. My name is Jennifer Bernard and I’m a fireman-a-holic. I know I can’t be the only one who drools over those smoking hot guys in (and out of) their strangely sexy turnout gear.  I mean …

That would be enough to get my blood sizzling, but what about their heroism? Their willingness to risk their lives? Their involvement in community events? Their kindness to old ladies whose cats are stuck in trees? I could go on, but I’ll spare you.

Luckily, I’ve found ways to cope with my little problem.  First, I wrote some books. THE FIREMAN WHO LOVED ME and HOT FOR FIREMAN are out now, and a third book, SEX AND THE SINGLE FIREMAN, is coming in January 2013. They’re part of the BACHELOR FIREMEN series, which takes place in a California firehouse filled with sexy, single firemen.

It takes a long time to write and edit a book, not to mention research it. My research involves countless calls and emails to a kind fireman I happen to know. Tough life, I know. If you add together all that time, it’s hours and weeks and months spent in the company of my fictional fireman hotties.

Then comes the promotion. What better way to promote books about firemen than spending hours on the internet hunting for sexy photos? Every Friday on my Facebook page is Fireman Friday – it’s even a hashtag on Twitter. It’s my job, my duty, to find new and awesome photos to post. I’d be letting down my Facebook friends if I forgot. Not that I’m likely to. I mean …

I get to do some promotion in real life too. I’ve visited the real San Gabriel firehouse, given books to the firefighters at my “fire consultant’s” station, and eaten dinner with the guys there. Read the rest of this entry »