When it was released last summer, Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women received many lovely reviews from Amazon Vine reviewers. Yes, there were the less-than-lovely reviews, mostly from readers who were expecting erotica and got erotic romance or expected only traditional fairy tales and got some original tales, too. But in general, the advance reviews were pretty good. But I just love this zippy little review from Amazon Vine member Robert P. Beveridge. I love well-written reviews that actually say something about the book and give recommendations for the genre. Just lovely. And now I have some new books to read.
What exactly is there to say about a book called Fairy Tale Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women that the title doesn’t already tell you? Well, I guess that question kind of answers itself, if you’ve been an Internet user long enough to remember the early, wild-west days of the alt.sex.stories.* family of newsgroups. There’s a lot of bad, bad erotica, and porn masquerading as erotica, floating around out there. The job of a good editor is to ensure that what you’re getting between the covers of a book, or delivered to your e-reader, weeds out the crap and gives you the quality. I’ve been a Cleis Press fan since I first found out about them, but Kristina Wright’s a new name to me. Would she be as good as the rest of the stable at finding and publishing the highest-quality erotica to be found out there?
Short answer: yep. I should qualify this by saying that I’m already an established fan of the current mythpunk movement (Sonya Taaffe, Jeannelle Ferreira, all those other folks who seem to have centered on Prime Books and have taken Angela Carter and Wendy Walker as demigods/muses), which sparked the current retelling-of-fairy-tales craze, so there wasn’t much here I wasn’t prepared for vis-a-vis the thematic and structural content; if you’re not familiar with that particular subgenre, drop in on a few books of the more mainstream stuff before digging in here. (But not too mainstream, and please for the love of god avoid Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and other such mashups; go for Taaffe’s Singing Innocence and Experience and Bill Willingham’s Fables series of graphic novels and Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and work upwards from there.) You’ll have a firmer foundation, if you’ll pardon the pun, for such delicacies as Andrea Dale’s “How the Little Mermaid Got Her Tail Back” or Louisa Harte’s “Ellie and the Shoemaker”, which cleave pretty closely to their historical antecedents. Then it’ll be time to branch out into the stories where there’s more of a whisper of the original instead of a shout. You know those dishes on Iron Chef America where some hoity-toity chef pipes some smoke under a dome and when you open it, you get that scent, but the actual dish is something entirely different? Yeah, like Carol Hassler’s “Gingerbread Man”, my favorite story in the collection.
Do I even need to tell you the sex is sublime? Of course I don’t.
Recommended. Get yourself a copy of this pronto.
I am hoping to submit a story to my wonderful friend Shanna Germain for her forthcoming anthology Bound by Lust. (Love, love, love the title, by the way!)
Here is her call for submissions for those of you who might also be interested in submitting to Shanna. (Oh… how naughty!)
Bound By Lust: A Collection of BDSM-flavored Erotic Romance
Imagine finding a partner who is just as naughty, kinky and dark as you are, a lover who wanders the hardware store with you in search of new ‘toys’, a man who can wrangle both you and the dishes into submission, a woman who accompanies you to office parties and play parties. Think that heady combination of: sweet and sexy, dirty and romantic, love and leather.
For this collection, I’m interested in romantic, couples-focused erotica with a BDSM slant. The BDSM aspect of this is wide open — bondage, spanking, domination, submission, power-play, pain and pleasure, or whatever your dirty mind can think of. Bring on the rope and rough stuff, the dens and dungeons, the corsets and clamps and cuffs.
But don’t forget the romance! Feel free to use blossoming relationships, long-time loves, or reunited flames. Couples can be two, three or more, hetero, gay, lesbian or anywhere in between.
What I’d Love to See:
Complicated, sexy, well-plotted stories with real characters and real couples.
Hot, creative, unique and literary stories that explore BDSM within the context of a romantic relationship.
Stories that stretch the boundaries of what defines both BDSM and romance, while staying within the genre confines of each (e.g. “happily ever after” or “happy for now” style endings).
Any time period, setting, or sub-genre is fine — the book will be mostly contemporary, but I will gladly read stories with fantastical, sci-fi and steampunkery elements.
Make me laugh, make me cry, make me wet. If you can do all three in one story, so much the better!
What I Don’t Want:
Cardboard characters or scenarios.
Unsafe or dangerous BDSM practices presented as though they are safe.
Non-consensual acts, pedophilia, bestiality (shape-shifting fauns are fine, of course).
The Details:
Stories should be previously unpublished, between 500 and 5,000 words.
Please submit Word documents (double spaced, 12-point Times New Roman) to with “Bound Submission: Story Title” in the subject line.
Questions can be sent to the same address.
Don’t forget all of your pertinent contact information.
Payment is $50/story.
Deadline is March 1, 2011.
About the Editor:
Shanna Germain is a writer, editor, teacher, geek, leximaven and wanderluster. Her award-winning short stories, poems, essays and articles have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Alison’s Wonderland, Best American Erotica, Best Bondage Erotica, Best Gay Romance, Best Lesbian Romance, Dirty Girls, Fairy Tale Lust, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, the Mammoth Book of Threesomes and Moresomes, Pank, Salon, Storyglossia, With This Ring, I Thee Bed and more. She is a former editor for Nervy Girl Magazine, Clean Sheets, 42Opus and Poetry Northwest. Her first fantasy novel, “Between the Devil and the Deep,” is scheduled for publication in early 2011. Visit her silk-sheeted virtual boudoir at http://www.shannagermain.com.
If you are looking for an excellent example of steampunk romance, talented paranormal writer Meljean Brook is the author to watch. I loved The Iron Duke, the first book in her Iron Seas series. Here’s the synopsis from her website:
After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power — and fear — of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession.
Mina can’t afford his interest, however. Horde blood runs through her veins, and despite the nanotech enhancing her body, she barely scratches out a living in London society. Becoming Rhys’s lover would destroy both her career and her family, yet the investigation prevents her from avoiding him…and the Iron Duke’s ruthless pursuit makes him difficult to resist.
But when Mina uncovers the victim’s identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans — and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke.
Trust me, it’s just as delicious as it sounds. (And zombies! Oh my, what’s not to love about a steampunk romance that includes zombies??) You can read an excerpt here.
I’m anxiously awaiting book two in the series, Heart of Steel, due out in November. I’m also thrilled to bits to say that Meljean has graciously agreed to write the foreword for Corsets and Clockworks, due out this fall! Yay!!
Have you submitted your steampunk story to me yet? I’m waiting…
My fabulous editor and friend Rachel Kramer Bussel has made this bubbly book trailer to promote her newest anthology Fast Girls: Erotic for Women, which includes my story “Chasing Danger.”
Enjoy!
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Life. Love. Writing. Editing. Sex. Books. Romance. Movies. Friendship. Photography. Teaching. Coffee. (Lots of coffee.) Travel. Feminism. Academia. Insomnia. Memories. Experiences. Rants. Raves. Reviews. Babies. Pregnancy. Motherhood. Insanity. Musings of an insomniac writer. Want to know more?
