J. Lea Lopez’s Erotica Writer’s Manifesto

Photo credit: wallyir from morguefile.com

We recently found a cool “erotica writer’s manifesto” by J. Lea Lopez.

“You may not think it’s a big deal to stand up and announce yourself as an erotica writer, but you’d be surprised at some of the reactions. Sometimes I think people want to ask me why I write erotica (as if the answer would be anything different than one they’d get from someone who writes SF/F).”

Read more at From The Write Angle

 

 

 

The Guided Tour: Out Now!

The Guided Tour

The Guided Tour

By Maggie Brooke
Published by Logical-Lust Publications
PRICES $12.99 (US/AU) / £8.99 (UK/EU) /$3.99 (ebook)
ISBN 9781905091607 (print)/ 9781905091614 (ebook)
© Maggie Brooke
232 pages / 77,000 words
Release Date: March 1, 2012
Genre(s):    interracial erotic romance

No wimps allowed.

Wealthy socialite Louisa “Lou” Mayflower Smith is a twenty-three-year-old Australian who has it all: a home on Sydney’s North Shore, an attractive professor as a fiancé, a new degree in engineering, and three lucrative job offers to choose from.

But when Lou takes a solo journey to the Northern Territory and gets arrested, she can’t charm—or buy—her way out of it. Upon hearing the news, her daddy cuts off her credit cards!

Stranded, Lou must work off a Community Service Order and take responsibility for her actions—and the actions of ten juvenile offenders—on a guided tour of the Outback designed to teach respect for the territory and its people. For Lou, the punishment is extreme. To make matters worse, she’s attracted to Warren George, their uptight, moral, but absolutely gorgeous Aboriginal tour guide.

But this is no pleasure trip. Lives are at stake. Will Lou rise to the occasion, or is she really “another rich, snooty, white bitch” Warren accuses her of being?

***

“An enjoyable read I didn’t want it to end.  Capturing the beauty of Australia’s Outback landscape this is more than an erotic romance novel.  It is a great story about struggles faced by troubled youth, race, class, desire, and healing, with the added bonus of unashamed sexuality.”
—Fiona Bishop
Community Development Worker / Sonic Artist

***

About the Author:

Maggie Brooke was born in Kansas but has lived in Oz (aka “Australia” to the uninitiated) since 1982 when she immigrated as a single mum with two children, one white and one black who are now grown and successful. She is the proud grandmother of two grandchildren and indulges in them and in her love for writing. With her writing often described as “gritty,” she is not conventional with her writing—or her sense of humour.

Ms Brooke has worked as a nurse practitioner in hospitals, public health, prisons, schools, institutions, remote Australian Aboriginal communities, in Liberia with Médecins Sans Frontières, and All Points East. Through her writing Maggie hopes to share the knowledge she has gained from living in this marvellous world and meeting its very varied, yet amazingly similar people.

The Guided Tour will be available in print and several ebook formats including Kindle and NOOK and can be found at many online retailers. Visit the The Guided Tour page at Logical-Lust Publications.

Logical-Lust Publications is an independent publisher based in Scotland specializing in erotica and erotic romance titles in both print and ebook formats since 2003.

Contact:  Jolie du Pre, joliedupre@ll-publications.com

Join the I Love Horror/Paranormal Novellas Blog Hop

Precious Monster’s
I Love Horror/Paranormal Novellas Blog Hop
August 6 – 10, 2012

Precious Monster’s first I Love Horror/Paranormal Novellas Blog Hop is designed to spread horror/paranormal novella love around.  Authors and readers will have the chance to blog about horror topics as well as horror/paranormal novellas.  The blog hop is open to authors AND readers of horror/paranormal novellas.

Visit Precious Monsters

Sevastian Winters’ Advice on Sex Scenes

As the Marketing Coordinator for LL-Publications and Logical-Lust, I’m always on the look-out for articles that benefit authors (and readers.) Sometimes I run across some excellent ones!  (I love my job!)

Here is an article I found written by Sevastian Winters.  Sev is one of my Facebook buddies.  He’s actively participating in the #AtoZChallenge, and he’s an author, writer, blogger and writing instructor.  Sev’s book How I are Becomed a Very Much Gooder Author  is a recommended read.

In “H is for How to Write a Sex Scene — April #AtoZChallenge,” Sev writes:

“If you want to know what an author is made of, read one of their sex scenes. No more primal experience in the human condition comes with as many nuances, variations and implications…”

As an erotica author, I completely agree.

Read H is for How to Write a Sex Scene — April #AtoZChallenge at Sevastian Winters

Too Busy To Write A Book? There’s Hope!

I am, as my mother would say, “a busy little beaver.” While writing my most recent novel, I was working full-time, going to school at UCLA and training for a 50 kilometer footrace. I also slept, ate, saw friends, posted on Twitter and Facebook, blogged, belonged to a book club and watched a number of “Mythbusters” episodes.  (Read the rest at Writer’s Digest.)

10 Technical Terms Visit the Gutter

Sometimes we can’t help but wonder if those tech geeks sit around and create terms just to be naughty in their own nerdy kind of way. After all, how else do you account for some of the names they’ve given us for common technical terms? Don’t believe us? Try these on for size – 10 technical terms that sound dirty (but really aren’t): (READ THE REST AT ISP)

Call for Submissions: SPANK!

***Permission to Forward is Granted***

Spank!

Be part of a spanking good read!

Edited by D. L. King
To be published by Logical Lust late summer or early fall 2010
Deadline: January 15, 2010
Payment: $25 and a copy of the book in available electronic formats, plus a copy of the print edition, if the book does well enough to go into print.

D. L. King is looking for hot spanking stories.

Sometimes all you need to get hot and bothered is a good bottom warming… Whether getting or giving is your passion, this book is designed to create the same blush on your face as the one found on your bottom after a few good, hard whacks.

What makes for a sexy spanking story? Short, plaid, Catholic schoolgirl skirts? Bent at the waist, a bare bottom with the boxers and pants down around his knees? A stern schoolmarm, or head master, standing in front of a blackboard, holding a rattan cane? A dungeon wall covered with all sorts of paddles, floggers and canes? A scolding? A punishment? A pert bottom settling over charcoal gabardine trousers? A ritualized display of dominance? The crack of a hand coming down on already heated flesh? Send me something guaranteed to make naughty girls and bad boys, the world over, squirm in their seats when they read this book!

I envision this anthology as being primarily heterosexual, but I’ll happily consider GLBT stories, as well. Remember, no underage characters, please. Stories should be between 2,500 and 5,000 words, double-spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman or Courier New. Please indent the first line of each paragraph one-half inch and do not include extra lines between paragraphs. Please make sure your document contains no other pre-set formatting.

Send your story as a .doc (not .docx) attachment and include the title, pseudonym (if applicable) and your legal name and mailing address to spankantho@gmail.com. (If you are unable to send a Word attachment, I will accept an RTF.) Subject line should read: Submission: [TITLE] Please include, as a second attachment, a 50 to 75-word bio, along with ways you might help promote the book should your story be accepted for publication. Direct any questions to the same address. Original stories only. You must own all rights to any reprints.

 

Jim Brown

Logical-Lust Publications

Interview with erotica author, D. L. King

D. L. King dlkingerotica.com is a New Yorker with a penchant for smut writing. She is the editor of Where the Girls Are: Urban Lesbian Erotica and the up-coming

Smut specialist - D L King

anthology, The Sweetest Kiss: Ravishing Vampire Erotica, both from Cleis Press, she is also the publisher and editor of the erotica review site, Erotica Revealed.

Some of her most recent work can be found in anthologies such as Broadly Bound (Phaze), Girl Crazy, Swing!, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma’am, Frenzy, Best Women’s Erotica, Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica and Best Lesbian Erotica.  You can find her also in the soon-to-be-released anthology, Like a Sacred Desire: Tales of Sex Magick (Circlet Press).  She is the author of two novels, The Melinoe Project and The Art of Melinoe.

LL:  Who is your toughest critic?

DLK: I’d really have to say that I am my toughest critic.  I tend to think whatever I’m writing, at any given time, isn’t really very good.  I’m disciplined enough to soldier on and finish what I begin.  (Unless, of course, I’m right, and the story does indeed turn out to be utter crap, in which case I file it away with the rest of the unfinished stuff—because you never know, sometimes you can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse…)  Usually, given distance, I’m pleasantly surprised when I go back and read a story.

But that’s why I really do rely on a couple of other people to give me an objective opinion when I’m working.

LL:  Does your family/significant other know and support your writing?  What do they think?

DLK: The SO is also a writer of erotica; as a matter of fact, that’s how we met.  So, yes, he supports my writing.  I really value his critical and editorial skills, too!  And—he doesn’t get mad when he recognizes certain lines, descriptions or sexual escapades…

As for my family, my mother died many years ago, but I know she would have been supportive.  My sisters know what I write.  They are both supportive, although one will actually read my work, while the other is a bit more reticent to do so.  My father learned that I wrote erotica (after I expressly told one of my sisters not to mention it) and was quite a bit less than happy to hear about it.  I never mention it, which is a shame, as I would like to share my successes with him.

LL:  Name an author whose work you’ve read for the first time that you enjoyed.

DLK: Donna George Storey recommended Susan DiPlacido’s book, American Cool (iUniverse) to me.  We reviewed it on Erotica Revealed and it sounded like an interesting read.  I’ll tell you what, that woman can write!  I read a lot of books, many of them extremely well written but Susan DiPlacido’s use of language blew me away.  She has three other books out, as well: 24/7 (Zumaya), Trattoria (Mundania) and Mutual Holdings (Magic Carpet).  I’d recommend her—and she’s a Las Vegas junkie, as am I!

LL:  Name a few references every writer (or writer in your genre) should have.

DLK: I have the following on my desk, by my computer: the Royal Shakespeare Company’s William Shakespeare: Complete Works (Bate & Rasmussen, 2007, Modern Library Edition, NY, NY), a well thumbed copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Current English, Third Edition, Oxford Pocket American Thesaurus of Current English and The Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words and Phrases. I also have a copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.

But, I’ll tell you, in Donna George Storey’s interview, she recommended The Synonym Finder (1978, Rodale Press).  I bought a copy and haven’t looked back since!  I LOVE THIS BOOK.  Thanks Donna!

I also use a version of the OED on my computer.  (As you can tell, I’m an OED snob.)

LL:  Who or what has been your best teacher when it comes to writing?

DLK: I credit my 10^th grade English teacher with teaching me to write.  Her name was Ms Welch.  She was ancient.  I’ve no idea what that would translate to now.  Ancient is relative when you’re fifteen years old.  She was mean.  She didn’t take any guff.  She corrected absolutely everything.  She used red pencil.  She took pride in correct usage of the English language.  Because of Ms Welch, I can write clearly and concisely.  (I even named one of the characters in The Melinoe Project after her.  It’s OK, I’m pretty sure she’d dead now.

LL:  Describe your experience getting published for the first time.  Would you have done anything differently?

DLK: My first two novels are very hardcore, explicit works of fem dom.  (Recently, a friend who just finished reading both books told me that she was happy to discover my Melinoe books were indeed, “extremely explicit, hardcore BDSM” as she is usually disappointed when she reads that on a cover and later finds that the book in question doesn’t come close to her idea of “extremely explicit, hardcore” fiction.)  There aren’t a lot of imprints that publish that sort of thing.  It took me over two years to get the first book, The Melinoe Project, published.

At the time, there were only three print publishers that would be interested in the title.   The first had signed all their titles for the coming year and asked me to resubmit in a year, if the book was still unpublished.  The second, through a series of mishaps, actually lost my manuscript—twice—before finally going out of business.  The third publisher seemed to be too squicked by the small amount of forced bi male action in the book.  (I don’t know—go figure.  I’m just telling you…).  By the time I got back to the first imprint, they had changed editors and the new editor needed me to begin the process again.  That editor liked my writing but felt the book was a bit too much for them at the time.

It was then, after having exhausted what looked like my only print options, I began looking at electronic publishers.  Let me just say, “I don’t write romance, erotic or otherwise.” With that on the table, there weren’t a lot of electronic publishers who would be interested in The Melinoe Project either.  I found Renaissance E Books and sent the publisher a query letter.  She was interested in seeing the manuscript, so I sent it to her.  She got back to me within the week and offered to publish it.

So, about two years and a week later, I got a contract!  Renaissance have since published the sequel, The Art of Melinoe and a short novella, The Marrying Kind.  The Melinoe books are also now available in print (CreateSpace) through Amazon.

LL:  Where did the idea for The Melinoe Project come from?

DLK: Such a good question, that.  You know, I’m not really sure.  I can tell you exactly when I began writing it (the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2002).  I can tell you the circumstances (friends and their child had driven down from upstate NY for Thanksgiving and stayed over.  They left that Friday morning and after I saw them off, I sat down at the computer and began writing).  What came out was this really extreme piece of fem dom erotica with elements of science fiction.  Oh yeah, and a lot of medical fetish.  Where the hell did that come from???  I really have no idea.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

LL:  Does your writing turn you on?

DLK: Abso-fucking-lutely!  If it doesn’t turn me on, how can I possibly expect it to turn anyone else on?

A HUGE thank-you to D.L King for the interview, and good luck with your new projects!

Jim Brown

LL-Publications

Logical-Lust Publications

You can still enter the EPIC 2010 ebook competition!

EPIC - home of the premier ebook awards competition

We’re pushing the EPIC contest hard in the last few days of the entry period. Because we brought the contest forward to a new time in the calendar, this year is a foreshortened year and entries aren’t quite as high as previously. Entries are healthy, but to keep momentum going we’d like as many late entries as possible!

I’m looking for a favour from you all and asking if you can forward this to all your groups, loops, and anyone you think might find it interesting! Also consider entering yourself!

Please copy and forward to all!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

EPIC’s premier eBook competition needs YOU!

How you may ask? Let me tell you how…there are a few ways you can help this wonderful ebook contest out.

First, this contest is in need of entries. Last year you knew the contest as the EPPIEs but with the ever changing field of ebook publishing, EPIC has decided to revamp the contest and rename it more in line with what it has come to be to the industry as a whole. This is the best ebook competition out there and there are those within the finalist ranks who have gone on to become NYC authors. EPIC has been seen as an innovator in the ebook industry for more than ten years and wants to continue to do so for each and every ebook author!

With over 30 categories to choose from there is a category specific to your genre in the ebook field. This includes categories in children, poetry, fiction, romance, erotic romance and many, many more.  Entries are still being accepted until August 15, 2009 for ebooks published between October 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009. Full details, plus entry forms here: http://bit.ly/M9NUc

Finalists will be announced November 2009 with the awards presented to the receiptents at EPIC’s 2010 conference in New Orleans, March 4-7, 2010.

Second, EPIC needs judges and if you feel you can qualify as a judge, please sign up immediately for participation! Only industry professionals need apply. Contact Anne Douglas at epic.competition.coordinator@gmail.com for more information. You will read some of the best books in the field…and love doing it!

And finally, don’t forget to sign up for EPIC’s 2010 Conference in New Orleans. We have a host of great people this year with agents, editors and authors alike. The conference is still small enough that you will get the special attention you need as a writer but large enough that you’ll be rubbing elbows with industry professionals in the eBook field. Just some of our schedules guest include Debra Dixon, Deidre Knight and Holly Jacobs as well as industry professional such as Daniel Reitz of Mundania Press with more signing up every day!

The information for EPIC can be found at http://www.epicauthors.com/, so don’t hesitate to stop by today!

Thanks!

Jim Brown
&
Carol MacLeod

Interview with Randall Lang, a Magnificent Man!

Hello, I’m Randall Lang and I’d like to thank Jim and Zetta of Logical Lust for inviting me here

Randall Lang, author or romance and erotica

today. For those who are unfamiliar with me, I am a writer of erotic and romantic stories and have been plying my trade for many years. My works include a story contributed to the recent smash success anthology SWING! edited by Jolie DuPre. Please visit me at my website at www.randalllang.com or my blog at www.randalllang.blogspot.com.

Name an author (or authors) whose work you have read or the first time that you enjoyed.

I’m sure that it comes as no surprise to anyone that, as a straight man, I don’t actually read a lot of romance. The numerous books by Morgan Ashbury delicately straddle the line between romance and erotica. Morgan’s work continues to appeal to me because of the unique angles and plot twists that she brings to a story. As much as I hate to admit it, Morgan’s romance stories are usually more ‘hard edged’ and less ‘mushy’ than mine. Now for erotica, we are neck and neck.

How/when did you decide to become a writer?

I had enjoyed writing in high school, although the ‘forced’ aspect of theme production took most of the joy out of it. With the required reading in both high school and college, I formed the mistaken opinion that a writer had to have a PhD in literature and be fluent in several languages in order to produce a readable book. My technical education soon took me away from writing and the idea of writing stories was quickly left behind.

Years later I developed a desire to read books about local history and, in particular, the history of the underground coal mines that were the keystone of the economy where I lived. One of these was Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam, the book that later became the hit movie October Sky. The man had a way of telling his stories in simple language that flowed along as I read, creating clear mental images of the people and places about which he was writing. I found that so impressive that I read several more of his books and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Well, if he could do it, maybe I could also.

My work at the time was underground, and required me to walk for mile after mile during the twelve hour shifts. With only the sound of my own footsteps in the dark and nearly silent environment, my mind came alive with thoughts, ideas, and stories that would otherwise have been lost to the din of surrounding noise. Hour after hour the thoughts would appear, take shape, and develop into romantic and erotic stories. During my break periods, I began to hand write the stories into a spiral bound tablet that I carried with me. Soon I had numerous stories, and it seemed that, as soon as one was written, another would pop into my head. Once I started compiling them on a computer, books began to take shape. With a pile of stories completed, I began to wonder, “Are they good enough to publish?”

Describe your experience getting published for the first time. Would you have done anything differently?

As I sat with my collection of stories, I had NO idea even how to look for a publisher. A few Google inquiries taught me that what I had written qualified as “erotica”. When I began looking for publishers, I quickly hit what I call the “pink ceiling”. The first publishers I found were interested in works by “Women only” or “GLBT only”. I compiled a long list of publishers and, one by one, read their submission guidelines. My dirty little short stories simply did not seem to fit any of them. Looking back, I sorely wish that Logical Lust had been around. Eventually I stumbled upon a publisher who appeared to deal predominately in whips and chains BDSM books, but also carried some straight erotica. With my ‘what can I lose’ attitude in place, I formatted my stories to that publisher’s requirements, wrote up a transmittal letter with all requested information, and attached my stories. To my surprise, I received a personal reply from the publisher in about a week. Among other recommendations was a suggestion to change my pen name from the “Randy Rider” I had submitted into “Randall Lang”. I am eternally grateful for that. In my naïveté, I had assumed that the author of erotic works was required to have a ‘porn star-esque’ campy name. After a few more communications, I received a contract form that I quickly signed and sent back. With no edits and no further communication, my books shortly appeared on the publisher’s website bearing a couple of completely forgettable and meaningless covers, and entitled, “Sweet Nothings” and “Sweet Nothings 2”. It was an amazing feeling to see my work published and available for sale. In the years that followed, I developed another book of erotic stories and a five volume series, all of which were plopped onto the website without edits, previews, cover design consultation, and in some cases, without signed contract forms. It was not until I began to explore the book loops that I began to get a picture of how the system actually works.

Would I have done anything differently? Probably not. The exhilaration of seeing each new book come up for sale, even with a crappy cover and inaccurate blurb has to be better than submitting endless queries and receiving numerous rejections.

What is one of the nicest things a critic or fan has said about your work?

Considering that most of my work is erotica, I actually get little feedback from readers. My only gauge until recently has been those beautiful blue lines at Fictionwise. As long as the lines are blue or green and not brown, I’m happy. I did receive some nice words from Editor Jolie DuPre after she read my story for the SWING! anthology. Kind words from her are high praise indeed. My newest release, Magnificent Man, was very well received by the editors, but, at this time, I am still awaiting critical reviews. My fingers are crossed.

Does your family/significant other know and support your writing? What do they think?

Before Magnificent Man hit the streets, I had kept my writing a secret from my grown children. Having a Dad who writes ‘dirty books’ is probably not something that they would brag about to their friends. I’ll send each of them a signed copy of Magnificent Man, and if they care to research Randall Lang, they will learn what they will learn. Otherwise, the undertaker can fill them in after he fills me in.

Does your writing turn you on?

Oh HELL yea! If it doesn’t ‘starch me up’, it certainly will not be interesting to the reader. The mind is the most sensitive erogenous zone, and that is the one I wish to stroke.

Name a few references every writer (or writer in your genre(s)) should have.

Let me scream this from my well-worn soapbox! D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y!  For GOD’S sake, learn to spell and learn to use a dictionary! Misspelled words are giant gaping potholes in the story that distract the reader from the journey that you have written. DO NOT depend upon ‘spell-check’! Get a dictionary and USE IT! The spelling on the book loops I visit is appalling, and that is from published authors.

A grammar guide is essential. Again, DO NOT rely upon the grammar-check of MS Word. It was developed by Chinese people who went to Argentina for a one-week training course in English. It does not even know the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ or ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. If you wish to call yourself a writer, you must learn how to punctuate and when to capitalize. One of the absolute best reference sources I have found is http://www.getitwriteonline.com/ . In the archives, they have actual answers for those sticky grammatical questions.

Finally, every writer should have a good thesaurus. When the editor screams about a writer overusing words, the thesaurus will help to correct that problem. I was always taught that, “You don’t have to remember this stuff now, but you must know where to find it later when you need it.” AMEN to that. A writer without reference guides is a blind man driving a bus. Your writing represents you and you DO NOT want it to say ‘moron’.

How do you overcome writer’s block? Any suggestions?

YES, and this was confirmed by a recent discussion in a book loop. When the writing becomes stalled, jump ahead to a scene that you know will be part of the story later on and write that scene. Then simply continue on from there until the muse delivers the connecting prose. I have written as many as three scenes ahead of time and connected them up as the ideas came to me.

Where did the idea for Magnificent Man come from?

Magnificent Man is Don Quixote on a motorcycle. Not literally, but figuratively. I am by nature anachronistic. I believe in the old values of honesty, chivalry, nobility, and faith and I wanted a hero who could share those values, without question, in the face of tormentors who wished to tear him down. But how could I create such a man in today’s world and where could I put him so that he would be accepted and admired? Once I had a hero and a location, the story fell together like the last pieces of a puzzle.

How and where do you do your research?

Most of Magnificent Man takes place in the desert county of the American Southwest. I spent two weeks in Arizona researching the desert, the history, the towns, the people, even the roads of that area. The rest I did using internet research. Magnificent Man takes the main characters on a journey through Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, and if you use a road map, you can follow them route-by-route, town-by- town, and reservation-by-reservation.  I created an imaginary town where my hero was born, La Mancha, California; everyone should get THAT one, an imaginary town near the Mexican Border, and an imaginary county where an ugly incident occurs. Other than that, places, buildings, etc. are real. I started to use the names of real people but changed my mind.

SWING!

This is the point where I shut up and the reader says, “Finally!” Once again, I want to thank Jim and Zetta Brown of Logical Lust Publications for the courtesy that they have extended to me, and I wish them much success on the launch of the print edition of SWING! available now. Please feel free to visit me at my website, www.randalllang.com, or to direct question to me at randymann64@yahoo.com. I remain,

your most humble and obedient servant,

Randall Lang