Smutketeers

I’ll be signing my latest erotic novel from Bantam/Delta, THE BEAUTY OF SURRENDER, this Sunday after the Los Angeles Romance Authors meeting at the Barnes & Noble in Encino! Also signing will be author Dayle Dermatis. The meeting runs from 10:30-noon, and I’ll be signing right after, so should be set up by 12:15, and will sign for about an hour. You can find us in the art section in the back of the store. I hope you’ll come by and see me! And if you’ve never been to a LARA meeting, the first one is free!

address:
Barnes and Noble Booksellers
16461 Ventura Boulevard
Encino, CA 91436

And if you want some mid-week fun, come on down to the In the Flesh Reading at the Hustler Hollywood store this Wednesday evening at 8:00PM to hear my fellow Smutketeer, Crystal Jordan, do the Phone Sex segment! She’ll be reading from her novella, NAUGHTY OR NICE, from the Under the Covers anthology.
In the Flesh is tons of fun! Free Hustler goodies to win, free edibles from the Hustler cafe bakery-and you just never know what else will happen~! Reading live this month are authors Margot Leitmen and Curt Stokes!

details:
This Wednesday, November 11th at 8:00 PM
Hustler Hollywood store
8920 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA

Here’s what it’s about:

Centuries after the destruction of earth, several species of altered humans still survive. These shape-shifters are exciting and exotic creatures, and their human forms do little to mask their most primitive and passionate instincts…

IN HEAT
Mahlia is a snow tigress in heat and now that her tiger king has returned to rule the planet Vesperi, she can no longer deny her desperate need to mate. She greets him as a woman, but their desire for sex is uncontrollable as they come together with a primal passion.

IN SMOKE
When Lady Katryn is called back to her home world to join Lord Nadir’s harim, she is curious to learn more about her weredragon nature. What she discovers is a scorching eroticism that consumes her all over.

IN MIST
Dr. Sera Gibbons is one of only two human survivors after a five hundred year cryogenic freeze. Save by the merman Bretton Hahn, she savors the way her caresses her and makes her live out her wildest fantasies.

And if you want to get it online rather than going to a brick-and-mortar store, here’s how:

Amazon.com
Barnes & Noble
Chapters.ca

I ran across an article over on EW.com by Stephen King called Who Says Real Men Don’t Read?

Being a female and writer, I like that the market seems to be open to females, which it really wasn’t even twenty or thirty years ago, but I also don’t like the imbalance either way. As a librarian, I want boys to read as much as girls. Then again, it’s kind of obvious they misinterpret the romance/ women’s fiction market (nothing new there). Anyway…thoughts? Weigh in!

Here’s the text:

If you catch publishing types in a ”don’t quote me” mood, they’ll tell you the male audience for fiction is disappearing. Agents and editors are constantly on the lookout for the next hot female writer, and why not? At the end of August, 7 of the 10 New York Times hardcover fiction bestsellers were by women, and that doesn’t even include Stephenie Meyer’s mega-selling Breaking Dawn (which the Times considers kid lit, thus not meriting a place on the adult list).

But, to misquote Mark Twain, reports of the male reader’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Women have chick lit; guys have what my son Joe (as in Joe Hill) calls ”manfiction.” And publishers sell it by the ton. Here’s a concept so simple it’s easy to miss: What men want from an Elmore Leonard novel is exactly what women want from a Nora Roberts novel — escape and entertainment. And while it’s true that manfiction can be guilty of objectifying women, chick lit often does the same thing to men. Reading Sandra Brown or Jodi Picoult, I’m sometimes reminded of an old Julie Brown song, ”I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid.” One memorable couplet goes, ”My father’s out of Harvard, my brother’s out of Yale/Well, the guy I took home last night just got out of jail.”

Is this a bad thing? From an entertainment standpoint, I’d say not. Women like stories in which a gal meets a handsome (and possibly dangerous) hunk on a tropic isle; men like to imagine going to war against an army of bad guys with a Beretta, a blowtorch, and a submachine gun (grenades hung on the belt optional).

And current manfiction certainly gives women a better deal than they got in the pulps of yesteryear, when most were presented as barracuda debs in frilly negligees. Robert B. Parker, who chronicles the hard-bitten exploits of that manfiction avatar Spenser (no first name), is also the creator of Sunny Randall, a PI who has had her own hard-bitten exploits. And while it’s easy to become exasperated with Spenser’s longtime partner, Susan Silverman, sooner or later Spenser and his pal Hawk always spring into action. Often with a .38 or a .12-gauge shotgun.

Alex Delaware, Jonathan Kellerman’s entry in the manfiction sweeps, also has a longtime female companion. Robin Castagna is less annoying than the navel-gazing Ms. Silverman, but both need rescuing from time to time, and saving the damsel in distress has been a satisfying part of good manfiction since the days of old when knights were bold and ladies fair went without their underwear. Also, Alex has a gay sidekick, Milo Sturgis. If that doesn’t make him a 21st-century dude, what does?

The fathers of modern manfiction would be Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and John D. MacDonald, creator of the world’s first boat-bum PI. MacDonald’s Travis McGee ruled the best-seller lists during the years when reading Playboy was still cool, and may have been the first continuing male character to see women as people rather than just as potential bed partners. Not that Travis was any slouch in bed; he specialized in a form of sexual healing mortal men (such as your faithful correspondent) could only admire. In the 21 McGee novels, the guy must have sexually healed over 200 women. Take that, Dr. Laura!

The best current manfiction writers? I’d say Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, Richard Stark, and Lee Child. Connelly’s Harry Bosch is a dogged cop who takes on the LAPD power structure as often as the bad guys. His current girlfriend, a very liberated woman, is an FBI agent. Crais’ creations — Elvis Cole and Joe Pike — are as tough as the combat boots they used to wear. Richard Stark’s Parker (also no other name) is refreshingly amoral, a thief who always gets away with the swag. In the series’ most recent books he has gained a little warmth thanks to Claire, his own longtime companion.

I saved the best for last. Lee Child’s tough but humane Jack Reacher is the coolest continuing series character now on offer. Reacher has also rescued his share of damsels in distress. He wanders the U.S., sometimes hitchhiking, more often riding buses. He dresses in cheap workingman’s duds bought in chain stores, pays cash, and (this is the part I really love) he used to carry only a toothbrush for luggage. He satisfies the most elemental male daydream, which is at bottom quite sweet: to ramble around and help out when help is needed. Possibly with a Beretta, a blowtorch, and a submachine gun.

Grenades optional.

…and we mean that in the filthiest way possible, because we are The Smutketeers! Yes, The Smutketeers, a gathering of  smut-peddlers extraordinaire who put pen to page and write some of the most scandalous stories imaginable. Let us stimulate your senses, titillate your mind, and set your body on fire, all with a mere few well-placed words. The pen truly is mightier than the sword! (Although the sword can be rather good, too…and I mean that in the dirtiest way possible).

In the weeks, months and years to come, stay tuned for interviews with authors, agents, tattoo artists, Steampunk experts, corset-makers, and any other interesting person we can possibly think of and can seduce into joining us here! And trust us, we have our ways.

In honor of the launch of our smutty new blog, we are having a Giveaway Extravaganza, a Smutketeers Smorgasbord, an Orgy of Luscious and Lascivious Reads, a Semi-Sapphic Soiree of Smut! Pervy prizes of Epic Proportions to be had over the next four days, each day hosted by a different member of our merry little band! All winners will be announced at the end of the week, on Sunday, October 5th, so check back to see if you’ve won one of our fabulous prizes!

On with the glamorous gaggle of gifts…we will be giving away a trio of prizes each day, a veritable three-way of tantalizing tales, a menage of magnificently penned erotic stories from each of us. Every book will contain a trio of erotic stories or a story about a menage simply because three-ways are hot! Do we need another reason? Each day will be a different prize, and we’re not telling what we’re doing when-in fact, even we don’t know! (Ooh, sounds like a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing…with a little imagination this could be fun!).

You could win:

From R.G. Alexander:
~Her two-book Temptation Unveiled series, Lifting the Veil and Piercing the Veil (e-books)
~Her two-book Children of the Goddess series, Regina in the Sun and Lux in Shadow (e-books)

* * *

From Eden Bradley:
~The Darker Side of Pleasure (print book)
~Exclusive (print book)
~Hot Nights, Dark Desires (print book)

* * *

From Lilli Feisty:
~Taken (e-book)
~Seasons of Seduction (print book)
~I Love Lacy (e-book)

* * *

From Crystal Jordan:
~Sexy Beast V (print book)
~Total Eclipse of the Heart (e-book)
~Carnal Desires (print book available this November)

* * *

A different contest will be announced each day, and we will set forth tasks to be completed in order to qualify to win. Who knows what we may ask you to do? How willing are you? Let’s find out, beginning with today’s contest:

My task for you, dear guests, is to come up with the best Steampunk names for each of us. You must have names for all four of us in order to qualify. Not quite sure who we are? Browse our photo gallery, or watch our video.

Talk to your friends and see what people are saying about us behind our backs-do what you must! Just do it well. We appreciate talent.

Not quite certain what Steampunk is all about? Allow me to illuminate you with a few helpful links:
http://www.datamancer.net/
http://www.steampunkworkshop.com/
http://www.abneypark.com/
http://ericfreitas.com/
http://www.wetanz.com/holics/index.php?catid=4

Enjoy! And do come back to enter each day for new prizes!