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Demon By Day - from Mojocastle Press
Heat Flash - a Podcast of Erotic Flash Fiction
Cream: The Best
of the Erotica Readers and Writers Association
Ripe Fruit: Erotica
for Well-Seasoned Lovers
Alienated - ERWA Treasure Chest
Garden of the
Perverse: Fairy Tales for Twisted Adults
Aphrodite
Overboard: The Erotic Memoirs of a Victorian Lady
Vertigo
Guide To Getting It
On!, 5th Edition
Playing For Keeps
Mur Lafferty, author
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Wednesday, October 17, 2007
This just in: Chocolate Jesus Returns!
I would love to see Kevin Smith make a movie about this statue, with George Carlin starring as the Pope. Now that would be sweet! |
Sunday, October 14, 2007
When Writing Erotica, Please Don't Forget...
For all you writers out there, here's a request. When writing erotica, please don't forget to include the erotic material.
Maybe I'm just being snarky, but I recently read "Sabine" by A.P. The quotes on the back cover stated that this book was supposed to be a really sexy read. In fact, one quote (by Reveal, whoever the heck they are) proclaimed the book to be, "Provacative... deemed so scandalous by its author that she refused to put her name to it. But despite its lusty content, the real shock is the scary secret unearthed toward the end. Spooky!"
Obviously the folks at Reveal don't get out much.
I bought "Sabine" based on the back cover blurbs and the artwork on the front, a chopped head-shot of a nifty fifties-style B-movie babe with fangs. I paid $12 for this book, and I was really hoping to get something damned sexy for that amount. What I got was a tired cliché of vampires who don't know they're vampires with barely any mention of sex. I have no idea what the author - A.P. - found so scandalous about the book that she had to hide her true name. Honestly, the damned thing nearly put me to sleep. So the main characters are lesbians. Big deal. You want hot lesbian erotica? Read anything by TreSart L. Sioux. Tre knows hot to write a hot story, and I guarantee the sex in it will curl your hair. Plus, she's a real horror fiend, so if you visit her website you're bound to find more goodies there. But "Sabine" by A.P.? Sorry, neither erotic nor horrific (except for the price I paid -- that was scary).
So please, if you're going to write erotica, be sure to include what's erotic in the story. Not just two characters doing a lot of misty-eyed angsting from across the room at each other. Give me some heat! Show me the characters in a state of arousal. Seduce me with their desire, and make me want them as badly as they want each other. They don't actually have to do the dirty deed. In fact, sometimes it's better if they're left wanting. Hot and bothered really does work in erotica. But please, please, please, don't just label your two main characters as lesbians and expect me to find that hot. That's just sheer laziness on the part of the writer.
Writing erotica is like making love. You have to seduce the reader, and it takes work. You really have to want to turn your reader on. Otherwise, switch to writing something else. Or else don't bother writing at all. I wish someone had given that advice to A.P. Then I'd still have my $12 to spend on something really sexy.Labels: Rant, Reading, Writing tips |
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Fantasci 6 - Post-convention Report
I went to Fantasci 6 this past weekend. I had meant to mention something before I went, but everybody in this house has been sick and my truly significant other was away on business all week, so I kind of had my hands full. Anyway, here's the skinny on the con.
The convention was held in the very roomy, very nice Hampton Roads Conference Center. It's a very nice place with all the amenities you could want for a con. Unfortunately, the con didn't get as many attendees as they would have liked, so the place seemed somewhat empty. However, things were well organized when I arrived on Saturday morning. My fan table for EPIC was all set up and waiting for me and my fifty billion boxes of promo materials. Kathryn Lively from Phaze Books joined me and together we chatted with everybody who passed by our table about the wonders of e-books. "Do you like to read? Would you like to be able to carry an entire library in your pocket? Let me show you some stuff on e-books..." We did slow but steady business and met plenty of interesting folks.
I had a lot of fun chatting with the other authors and guests there. The fan tables were lined up on opposite sides of the hallway, which was pretty wide. We came up with some interesting hand signals to communicate back and forth. I'm not sure, but I think the guy across from me was signally that he was either really hungry for lunch, or maybe he was having a gas attack. Who knows?
After spending all day handing out bags of bookmarks and postcards and such, I went home (the HRCC is just right down the road from where I live) and discovered that the kids hadn't yet killed my husband although they were working on it. We got the little terrors to bed in time for Torchwood, and then collapsed in bed ourselves. I had no idea how exhausting it would be to man a fan table all day.
The next day, Sunday, Pamela Kinney (a.k.a. Sapphire Phelan) joined me at the table. Most of the stuff I had left out the night before was gone, which was nice because I didn't want to have to haul everything back. We set up shop again and talked to a few more people. Kathryn Lively joined us a little later and around 2 PM, Kathryn and Pam went off to do a panel on e-publishing. Unfortunately, only a couple of people showed up for the panel, but it's our first outing so we're hoping that at upcoming conventions we'll be able to drum up more interest.
Other points of note, I talked with Marscon staff about doing panels on e-publishing and maybe some adult panels on erotica and sci-fi. I'll be working on that over the next few months. Also, those of us who were working the table discussed the possibility of getting fan tables or dealer tables at other upcoming conventions. It's looking like 2008 could be a very busy year convention-wise.
So, Fantasci 6 turned out to be small, but I think it was a great opportunity for me to learn how to run a fan table, do some one-on-one promo, and make a few good connections at the con.
Best of all, the crazy right-wing religious nuts never showed up with their pitch forks and torches to burn me at the stake ;)Labels: Conventions And Appearances, Zealots |
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