**Psst! Ms. Paisley and I have an announcement to make! We’ve just contracted to write two anthologies and one co-written book with Ellora’s Cave! The books are dark and kinky and filled with vamps and witches. We can’t wait to start sharing more details! ~DD

Is Kink the New Black?

When Ellora’s Cave first announced their new kink line, I thought I’d never be able to write kink. Until I realized just how kinky my fantasies really are!

Kink is definitely a new trend in erotic romance and I think it’s here to stay. But do you have to be into a particular kink to enjoy reading about it? I don’t think so. For me, anyway, it’s all about the fantasy. And kink romance, like bdsm romance, is all about the power exchange between the characters.

While doing research for Nurse Lovette, I was amazed to discover how many forms of kink there are. From furries to tickle fetishists, they all had one thing in common and that was the sub / dom (or in my case, domme) relationship.

In Nurse Lovette, Avery is a woman whose medical fetish fantasies have prevented her from finding intimacy with her sexual partners. Her therapist encourages her to find a partner who is willing to explore these fantasies in real life. Avery quickly discovers there’s more behind her inability to find intimacy than she realized.

Everybody has a kinky side although it might not be as extreme as Avery’s. Is there a kink or fetish you enjoy reading about that you might or might not try in real life?

I’ll put the commenters names in a hat and draw one for a free download of Nurse Lovette!

Or click here to buy it now from Ellora’s Cave!

After two failed marriages, Avery Walker is encouraged by her therapist to explore her secret obsession. She can’t get off without fantasizing about submitting to intimate examinations—performed by a hot female nurse. When she joins a medical fetish website, she expects to find a partner who’ll provide a little probing and maybe some sexual release to help Avery get in touch with her kinky side.

Then she meets Nurse Lovette…

The consummate professional, Darby Lovette is determined to keep her relationship with Avery one of nurse and patient—nearly impossible when the gorgeous woman is on the exam table, willingly submitting to unspeakably intimate “procedures”. The fact that she’s loved and lost helps Darby maintain her resolve; falling in love isn’t part of her treatment plan. But Avery’s determination to explore sex with a woman just might be the cure for what ails them both.

Reader Advisory: This book employs myriad toys created especially for erotic exams, no holes barred, and, ahem…perhaps a sensual enema—or two.

An Exotika™ erotica story from Ellora’s Cave

Chapter One

Avery Walker pushed her untouched pastry away. She couldn’t have swallowed even if she’d been hungry. Today, not even the soothing scent of fresh-ground coffee and cinnamon buns could quiet her nerves. Today, she was meeting Darby Lovette in person for the first time.

Today, she was facing—and sharing—her darkest, most taboo fantasies.

Encouraged by her therapist, Avery had joined a fetish dating website. After two failed marriages to men, she had very reluctantly decided it might be time to confront her secret desires head on, to see if her therapist was right about the fact that fear was the only thing keeping her from having a real relationship. She’d signed up under the moniker Model Patient Seeks Nurse and had anonymously detailed the particulars of her fetish.

Avery had studied enough psychology in college to know a fetish like hers could drive a wedge between fantasy and real intimacy. How could it possibly help to bring her closer to anyone?

And a stranger at that?

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**Remember! The Skull Stealing Fairy contest continues! Post to enter! ~DD

I know you all need something to do today. I have the perfect activity. It’s “Tag It” day! What’s that, you say?

Well, on Amazon.com, they have this marvelous little section on each book’s page entitled “Tags Customers Associate with This Product.” Why is it significant? It’s how customers find the kinds of books they love. The more people who click on the tag, the higher the number of tags it accumulates, and the more likely the book is to appear on one of those searches. Then a reader seeking “cowboy” books, might actually find the author’s cowboy book.

I have several books that could benefit from being tagged. I promise, it only takes a few seconds of time to do it!

* Handy Men has been moving steadily up the list. A few more tags might bump it up a bit more. Click on the link to open the page: Handy Men

* While Begging For It has been accumulating some terrific reviews, it needs help for readers to discover the story. Click on this link to help: Begging For It

* Undeniable is still finding an audience among readers who love a little cross-genre hopping: Undeniable

And then there are the two big books I have coming in September and October. They are both available for pre-order at a reduced price, so it’s not too soon to tell readers about them. Here are the links for you to hop on over and “tag” the hell out of the books!

* Enslaved by a Viking (Kindle) and Enslaved by a Viking (paperback)
* Girls Who Bite

For Girls Who Bite, be sure to open up all 21 tags so you can click on my name. It’s not appearing at the moment because I wasn’t as fast as some of the contributing authors to get my name listed in the tags.

So let me know if you did this and whether it was something you never considered doing before or something you found a total pain in the ass. I do it for authors I love. Maybe you’ll think about it the next time you head to Amazon. Along with heartfelt reviews, tagging can really help.

And because I never ask for a favor without offering something in return, for any of you who post today telling me about your experience, I’ll hold a drawing for a free download of any of my Samhain or Ellora’s Cave books. I’ll name the winner in Sunday’s post, so you have plenty of time to make your way down the list!

Authors, if you drop by today, be sure to leave a link to your book at Amazon in the comments for helpful readers to find!

Taking it Down a Notch

When people ask me what I write, I tailor my answer to the crowd. On the internet, or any time I’m going by my pen name, I proudly and gleefully state that I write erotic romance (or shorter: I write smut!). If my kid’s teacher asks, on the other hand, I just say, “Romance novels. Trashy ones. You’re not old enough to read them.” And when my mom’s friends ask me about my books as we’re sipping tea at the country club, wow do I get coy. Some of her friends are among my readers, and some are not, and you really wouldn’t want to confuse the two groups.

Anyway, it’s a long-running joke in my family that at some point I’m going to have to write something I can publish under my real name, so that my mom can show her friends (and I can show my kids’ teachers) something I’ve written…and nobody will get thrown out of the country club, or booted off the PTA. So when I started writing Gossamer Wing, the steampunk book I’d been planning for years, I decided it was time to take the plunge—or rather, it was time to come into the shallows from out of the deep end—and try my hand at writing a mainstream-heat-level romance.

Harder than you might think. Heh. And that “heh” right there is a good example of why it’s so difficult. When you write erotica, you grow accustomed to seeing the world through the lens of double entendre. Especially when you write BDSM erotica, way over there on the far end of the kinkiness spectrum. If all you have is a flogger, eventually everything starts to look like a tush. Since I started out as an erotic romance writer and most of my books are at least somewhat kink-oriented, I had virtually no experience with vanilla romance writing. If I was going to write the stuff, I realized I had to ditch the flogger.

For one thing, there’s the vocabulary to unlearn. I had an epic twitter conversation about this one day with several other writers of varying heat levels, discussing the words we could/couldn’t use for our various imprints. I rely heavily, for instance, on words that rhyme with “snit”, “wussy”, and “shunt” in my erotica writing. Another author couldn’t even get away with using the word that rhymes with “flock”. None of us liked to use the one that rhymes with “stick”, but the historical writers occasionally used that other one that rhymes with “stick”. Lost yet? Maybe you had to be there, but my point is that without those words, I felt kind of lost, and I had to get creative in a whole new way to keep my book’s sexytimes sexy without overdoing it (yeah, I totally still used snit and flock, though).

The other, and perhaps more important thing, was the shift from a sex-centric story to a story that just happened to have a lot of sex in it. In erotic romance, a lot of the story is told through the sex; that’s where the character development takes place, that’s often where the conflict arises, that’s the point of the sub-genre. In Gossamer Wing, though, the story involves a neo-Victorian North America that never was, a robotically enhanced French spy, a hero who builds astonishing gadgetry out of spare parts, and daring airship exploits by the intrepid heroine. They’re saving the world, and when they stop to have sex they’re stopping the action of the book. That was a big problem.

The key, of course, turned out to be using the sex just like I’d always used it—as a vehicle for character development. By keeping the characters’ arcs firmly in mind, I learned to weave the lovin’ into the story in such a way that it didn’t bring things to a grinding—heh—halt (at least I hope it doesn’t). And going through that learning process gave me a whole new appreciation for mainstream romance writers who strike that balance well. After several years of immersing myself in erotic romance, I’ve started reading mainstream romance again (for the first time since my teenage years) and adoring it.

I have no plans to stop writing the hot stuff, but taking it down a notch and going mainstream has been a surprisingly good experience for me both as a writer and as a reader. I’m already working on a sequel to Gossamer Wing, and this time my focus is on learning to switch back and forth between mainstream and erotica writing modes without going too nuts over those words that rhyme with flock, snit, and wenis (nobody finds that one sexy)!

For a peek at the hot stuff (since Gossamer Wing isn’t sold yet) check out Tangled Truth, my latest from Ellora’s Cave. Go ahead, read an excerpt! It’s the third of four books in my contemporary series, Truth & Lies.

Tangled Truth isn’t remotely mainstream, and it features shibari, Japanese rope bondage. Lots of fun! Rhymes with…nah, I got nothin’.

I think I’m tired of day-tripping. This past weekend while friends held down the fort here, I drove to North Arkansas to my sister’s, then trekked across to Oklahoma where we both led a plotting bootcamp on Saturday. Then it was back to North Arkansas to drop off sis before making my way back south. Those were a lot of miles, and the whole time I was away I fretted about my past due deadlines.

I have plenty of excuses for why I can’t get my work done, but none that truly excuse me. I used to write when I worked full time AND did my once a month National Guard stint WITH needy children underfoot!

Last week, last minute (I stayed up until Midnight on Thursday), I wrote a short story for a Cleis collection. That’s the sum total of my writing accomplishments last week. I have to do much better this week. Do you have any suggestions for how I might stay focused or organize my time better?

But y’all don’t want to hear me whine, do you? You want to know who won that cute little book dragron, right? (Yes, I know I still have the last prizes to get out the door. I’ll do that this week, come hell or high water!)

The winner, from among 190 entries is…Karen C! Congratulations, Karen! Be sure to email me with your snail mail address.

I’ll be back with a brand new contest tomorrow, so be sure to check in!

WHEN BETA RELATIONSHIPS BECOME SERIOUS

or “How To Use a Catcher’s Mitt”

From ACN: When I go to my writing group and mention to friends of mine that I write with a collaborator, or as I call her, a co-author, I get odd looks. One even suggested that it couldn’t possibly be a collaboration and that really I must be doing all the work. But that really couldn’t be farther from the truth.

As in any good partnership, once synergy happens, one can’t tell where an idea began once it gets going. The whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. (And here you thought two and two only ever equaled four!) Rachel and I started working together several years ago as “beta readers” for each other. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a beta reader is a second pair of eyes who looks at your manuscript and helps to pinpoint areas of weakness. It is not, generally, a line editor. (In fact, many beta readers that I’ve known refuse to line edit.)

When Rachel first sent me a manuscript to look through, what struck me right off was the strength of the story. It did need help with some of the technical details, but the underpinnings were rock-solid. Contrary to what many writers have said in my hearing, it is my belief that STORY is everything. If you don’t have a good story, you just have well-constructed grammar exercises. After all, it’s not very interesting to read “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.”

From RW: I would say that several of the main benefits are input and a second opinion when world building. It also helps to have another pair of eyes when editing and another brain when creating, as well as a built in support system for the tough times. It’s fun to trade ideas and use each other as a sounding board.

Back to ACN: As we worked together, we started talking about how we might write a story together. I suggested a blog, and created Taurus and Taurus. That is how our serial novel NEW WORLD ORDER came to be. At first, Rachel took one character and I another, and we essentially role-played our way through the story. We have the first, second, and third books all plotted out as well as ideas for a couple spin offs.
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Gritty Historical Novels

by Denise A. Agnew

Romance novels have a happy ending, and that’s one of the reasons why I love them. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like a novel with grit. You know, the type of novel that really is heart-wrenching, makes you think something seriously bad is happening to the hero and heroine and that they will have to fight for their lives and their happiness.

While I love writing contemporary novels, I’ve found my true voice in historical romance. Here I feel like I can sink my teeth into everything dramatic, romantic.

Research isn’t something I shy from when I’m researching a historical novel. In fact, it’s one of the elements I find compelling. Not only do I discover what I need to accurately portray the people and times for that novel, I love learning about a new time period and place.

Historical novels are calling on me at all levels lately. In summer 2010, Samhain Publishing released a reprint of my Jack The Ripper novel (original title Midnight Rose) under the title Dark, Deadly Love. On January 4, 2011 Samhain released For A Roman’s Heart. Both novels have stunning covers! Thank you to the wonderful artist Kanaxa. In June of 2011 Samhain released Before The Dawn and it also has a beautiful cover. Each novel started with a kernel of an idea and blossomed into a story I loved writing.

And what about the future? I have six…count ‘em…six historical novels either in the works or in the idea stages. The six are broken into two separate trilogies but they all involve paranormal elements.

Here’s a tidbit of BEFORE THE DAWN to tantalize you.

A fallen woman must decide to stay down, or rise and fight…

Elijah McKinnon has been found innocent of a heinous murder, but it doesn’t erase the hellish years in prison he endured. He boards the train to Pittsburgh a changed man, certain he will never feel free until he’s wreaked revenge on the brother who ruined his life.

The passenger who catches his eye is intriguing, but he’s seen her kind before. The kind who puts on airs—and looks down on Irishmen. Still, he can’t seem to stop himself from stepping between her and a pack of ruthless cads.

Mary Jane Lawson is grateful for the handsome stranger’s help, but her journey has a higher purpose: to rise above her shattered reputation and declare her independence, come flood or famine. Propriety says she should refuse Elijah’s suggestion they pose as husband and wife—for her own protection, of course. Her practical side says it won’t hurt to pretend, just this once.

Come nightfall, though, their little charade must be carried all the way to shared sleeping quarters, where their vulnerabilities become painfully clear. And when danger past and present threatens, trusting each other becomes a matter of life and death.

Product Warnings: A hot Irish accent mixed with high adventure may cause combustion. Beware of falling for this hunk. The heroine says he’s hers.

She stumbled along in his wake, no energy to ask why they pushed onward into the woods where no one from the train could help them. Thinking that far ahead caused more trepidation, so she concentrated on planting one shoe in front of the other. After what seemed an endless time, a rocky outcropping and massive hill rose in front of them.

“Thank the saints.” He tugged her forward. “Here.” He released her hand long enough to shove aside shrubbery and reveal a tall opening. She saw his throat work as he swallowed hard. “Damnation. I don’t want to go in here, but we must. I’ll go first, you follow.”

His voice snapped like a general, and she flinched. His eyes went hard, unyielding.
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I’m soooo not motivated to go on another trip, but sis and I agreed to lead a plotting workshop for the Oklahoma City RWA chapter. The class is tomorrow, but I’m heading out the door today to travel to my sister’s house (she lives in northern Arkansas). From there, we’ll make the trip into OKC.

While I’m away, I have two guests signed on to keep you entertained:
Saturday — Denise Agnew
Sunday — A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder

Be sure to drop by and comment. The Book Dragon Contest continues! Click here for more details!

And just so that you have something to talk about when you post, help me with a little brainstorming.

I need a title for an eerie book set in the bayou country in Louisiana. There’s a monster in the water—a darkly seductive monster who tempts the hero. Our heroine will be there to keep him on the straight and narrow so he doesn’t end up the creature’s next meal. Throw out suggestions! There’s never a stupid idea when you brainstorm, because just a single word can spark another idea, then another…

I’ll check in, if I can, to see how you’re doing! ~DD