Monday, September 6, 2010

It's almost here!

I'm so excited, because RAVENOUS is almost here! It's due out tomorrow from Samhain!


Want a super hot excerpt? Well, here you go (although this does require a bit of set-up. Drummond and Annabelle are prisoners of the vampire pirate captain Galerius, who has put a spell upon them so that their presence will not be noticed by the crew):



Annabelle looked around them. The crew swarmed everywhere. As one sailor hurried past her with a bucket of hot tar, she had to sidestep him. “Right here?”

“Why not?” Drummond began unfastening the cuffs of his shirtsleeves, the presumptuous... Annabelle struggled to think of the worst word she could imagine. The presumptuous ass!

“They can’t see us,” he continued, pulling the loose ties at his collar free. “They can’t hear us. And you have to admit, the thought of it arouses you. Your breath has quickened, your throat is flushed. Those beautiful gray eyes are practically glazed over in anticipation.”

He mistook her flush for desire, when it was one of anger. “You think an awful lot of yourself. Why would I lie with you? Simply because you’re the only man available?”

He smirked. “Not because I’m the only man available. You’ll lie with me because you want me.”

“Your opinion of yourself is rather high.” Though her fingers trembled, they strayed to the ties at her sleeves. She loosened one, then the other, then reached for the ribbons that crisscrossed at her bosom. She pulled one tail of the bow at the top, slowly, enjoying the way Drummond’s hungry gaze followed her every movement

“If you won’t lie with me,” he asked, pulling his shirt over his head, “then who?”

She pulled her arms free of the bodice of her gown and let it slip to the deck at her feet. Exposed to the chill air, her nipples puckered and her skin turned to gooseflesh. Well, it was partly from the chill air. A rush of heat flooded her core, and her knees went weak at the thrill of being so exposed, before so many people. Even if only Drummond could see her, the effect was heady. She slid one hand over the tops of her breasts, then down the valley between them, over the soft plane of her stomach. Every inch her hand covered, Drummond covered with his gaze, and she teased him, running her fingers across the top of the tightly curled hair on her mound.

Drummond grinned. “Lovely. Come here.”

She shook her head and backed away slowly. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed the men working at patching the canvas. The sail was stretched out on the deck, the sailors kneeling around it. The most encouraging, wicked thrill shot through her.

“What are you doing?” Drummond asked, following as she approached the edge of the sail.
She dropped to her knees and timidly placed one hand on the material. None of them seemed to notice, and she gave it a little tug, just to make certain they would not. She climbed onto it, holding her breath, certain something would happen to force them to see her. But the men did not. They kept working.

Drummond gave a laugh. “You’re right, you are rather adventurous, aren’t you?”

She turned on her back, propped on her elbows, but she said nothing. When Drummond fell to his knees and crawled forward, she stopped him with a foot against his chest. “I told you, I won’t lie with you.”

His face fell, and Annabelle almost laughed at his crestfallen expression, as though he were a little boy who’d been denied a puppy. Then that expression changed to another insufferable smirk. “You’re teasing me.”

“You’ve only just caught on?” She scooted back and laid flat, her heart pounding wildly in her chest. On either side of her, the sailors worked at their task, their hands moving just inches from her naked body. They could not see her, could not hear her, but if they touched her...

The fear of discovery only heightened her arousal, and her body ached as she smoothed her hands across her breasts, her belly, her thighs, but she did not touch where she so very much wanted to. If she had learned anything from Drummond, it was that delaying pleasure brought greater gratification.

She closed her eyes and imagined the men’s hands on her, faceless, nameless bodies brushing against her. She let her knees fall open, and Drummond made a strangled noise.
She paid him no mind, but slid her palm over the gentle rise of her stomach, inching lower to cup her mound. Her folds were already slick. She dipped her fingers into the wetness and brought them to her mouth, opening her eyes to watch Drummond as she tasted herself on her fingers.

“I take it back,” he said, wetting his lips. “You have plenty of imagination.”

She laughed and let her eyes fall closed again as she touched herself in earnest, pulling more slick heat from her core. Lost to the heady thrill, she bucked her hips against her hand and rolled her sensitive nub between two fingers. With a groan, Drummond tried again to move closer, and she stilled her hand.

“Will you show me?” she asked, panting, as he crawled over her.

“Show you what?” He gripped the base of his cock, hard and eager for her, and braced himself over her, the tip of him just brushing her mound.

“What it’s like to lie with two men.” It took all of her self-control not to reach for him, to slide him home.

His face was unreadable. A muscle twitched in his clenched jaw. Finally, he nodded.
When he did, Annabelle squirmed from beneath him and climbed to her feet.

Drummond stared up at her, still holding his cock, confusion creasing his brow. “What are you...wait...”

“Tonight,” she promised, and strode away, scooping up the discarded gown. Her body still burned for release, and she planned to have it, locked safely in the cabin where Drummond could not follow.



So, pick up your copy of Ravenous, on sale tomorrow at Samhain Publishing.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Fat heroines and female sexuality

I've been thinking about these two topics a lot lately, for two different reasons. I've just finished writing Glass Slipper, which will be available from Resplendence in November, and which features a big, beautiful heroine and a hero who prefers his women on the chubby side. I've just started writing All Steamed Up: Infernal Devices, which will also be released by Resplendence, in February of 2011. Infernal Devices also features a heroine who isn't slender. As a reader, I felt a bit of a gap in books that features heroines who look like me, so I set out as a writer to correct that, to some extent. But in writing it, I've learned a lot. I've realized how we de-sexualize fat women in our society. I've realized how the harmful attitudes about sex and women that persist to this day in Western culture are continuing to influence writers and readers, even when we don't realize it.

One of the very persistent and harmful stereotypes that persist toward fat women is that our sexuality is never depicted in a sex positive way. Movies and tv routinely show fat women who are either delusional about their sexual attractiveness (because, by virtue of being fat, they are never desireable and should not find themselves so) or desperately horny (because no man will sleep with them). Fat women in movies are reduced to charicatures or sexual predators, so desperate for male attention that we would practically rape a man-- and would have to-- in order to have a sexual encounter.

Our bodies are also under attack in the media as being dirtier or smellier than thin bodies. In the movie Bring It On, there is a scene in which it is implied that a male cheerleader, when lifting a female cheerleader over his head, is putting his finger into her vagina. This scene bothers me on so many levels already (it is clearly depicted as being an unwanted violation, but it is still played for laughs and considered funny by other characters when it's discussed), and more so when I compare it to another movie, Dodgeball. In a scene in which Justin Long is shown trying out for his high school's cheerleading squad (in order to impress a pretty, thin cheerleader), he is asked to lift an overweight classmate who tells him, with a leer, that she is not wearing underwear. He is unable to lift her and when she falls it is implied that his face is pressed against her bare vulva. The characters who view this incident are horrified and disgusted.

In Bring It On, the female cheerleader in question is a thin girl who is the token "slut" character. However, her "hotness" makes it acceptable for her to behave in a sexually promiscuous manner. In Dodgeball the girl is fat and assumed to not be attractive to anyone on the planet, and so her sexuality is a joke, and the thought of touching her genitals is disgusting.

I will always write characters who have different types of bodies, because all bodies are beautiful, no matter if they're thin or fat, large breasted or small breasted, tall or short, flabby or muscular. They're all machines that work the same way, more or less, and they all have sexual components that are good to touch, fun to play with, and capable of bringing us great pleasure. Humans are, for the most part, sexual beings who delight our in bodies. We need to start remembering that, instead of shaming all women for their sexuality.

For more interesting thoughts on the subject of women's bodies, visit this excellent and thought-provoking article at The Rotund.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Birds of a Feather...

Last night, Temple Hogan told me about an interesting new browser called "Flock". It's advertised as a "social media" browser, meaning that it is designed to make your browsing of Facebook and your checking of email so much easier. You can update your blog directly from it-- I'm doing that now!-- and keep tabs on other blogs you like to visit.

I'm not sure if this is as useful a tool as some might think. It's awfully tempting, when diligently blogging away, to comment on a friend's Facebook update that just popped up in the left column. And pop up they do, like mushrooms, as Flock shows you these updates in real time, or close to it.

I'm unsure whether this will be a good change for yours truly, or if it will merely aid in the procrastination in which I so like to indulge.
Blogged with the Flock Browser

Sunday, July 4, 2010

What a lovely and fitting first post!

Instead of a long-winded introduction (which I find often feel too "official" and a teensy bit cold), I can share something wickedly fun with you! Fabio Livejournal Icons from Iconzicons!

Adorable, fun, and a little bit naughty!