Goodreads Book Giveaway--Through the Hourglass

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Through the Hourglass

by Sacchi Green

Giveaway ends January 15, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Library Journal Loves Best Lesbian Erotica 20th Anniversary Edition!

A Starred Review on Library Journal!

Best Lesbian Erotica: 20th Anniversary Edition. Cleis. Feb. 2016. 224p. ed. by Sacchi Green. ISBN 9781627781541. pap. $16.95. EROTICA This 20th anniversary edition of the series soars with 17 powerful f/f offerings that stand out from the crowd. Edited by Green, the anthology entails plenty of sexy first-time hookups, peppered with established couples and their raunchy routines. Rose de Fer’s “Dust” packs poetic grit and sensuality into lonely Alice’s otherworldly encounter with a
beautiful hitchhiking stranger,
while young couple Jesse and
Asher explore their voracious
sexual appetites and Jesse’s nascent dominant side in Sinclair Sexsmith’s piping hot “Luscious
and Wild.” Other highlights
include Jean Roberta’s eccentric “Tears from Heaven,” in which Dr. Athena Chalkdust lavishes young submissive protégé Didrick Bent with pain and pleasure after an incident of animal neglect. In “Mirror, Mirror,” Frankie Grayson’s protagonist finds dormant carnal pleasures awoken by the voyeuristic tendencies of her alluring look-alike. D.L. King doesn’t disappoint with “Hot Blood,” a sexy supernatural vignette in which gruff mechanic Van spots a potential packmate in a gorgeous redhead whose car breaks down, while Anna Watson’s playful “Easy” recounts a woman with a unique “talent” for finding an electric current in even the slightest of sensations, culminating in her orgasmic experience during a drag king performance. VERDICT The powerful stories range widely in content, kink, plot, and pairings but are uni- form in their high quality and ability to craft engaging erotic tales with few words.

Goodreads Giveaway for Thunder of War

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Thunder of War, Lightning of Desire

by Sacchi Green

Giveaway ends December 31, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Go ahead, this Giveaway lasts until December 31.  This is one of the best anthologies I've edited, with fine writers. The stories in no way glorify war, but rather pay tribute to the women of courage and vulnerability, passion and strength, who did what they thought needed to be done, in their own personal ways, and took what comfort they could in other women doing the same.

Through the Hourglass: Lesbian Historical Romance

Another new anthology!

Check Women and Words (http://womenwords.org ) on December 3rd for a chance to win a free copy—if you can stand to wait that long. These terrific writers really delivered.

Through the Hourglass: Lesbian Historical Romance Edited by Sacchi Green and Patty G. Henderson Published by The Liz McMullen Show Publications

 Here are the introductions and the list of stories to give you some idea of what you’ll find.

 Megan McFerren VOLVUR
Heather Rose Jones WHERE MY HEART GOES
Patty G. Henderson
IN FULL MOON LIGHT
Priscilla Scott Rhoades EMMA
Susan Smith
 SAFFRON AND FENNEL
Cara Patterson PROPRIETY
Doreen Perrine
 A YEAR OF SILENT PROMISE
Connie Wilkins THE BRIDGE
Lexy Wealleans CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN
R.G. Emanuelle
THE RUM RUNNER AND THE SHOWGIRL
Jean Copeland NIGHTINGALE
MJ Williamz
 MY ELIZABETH
Aliisa Percival WITH A SPARK
Allison Fradkin
 WITH BALL DUE RESPECT
Ann Bannon
 BEEBO BRINKER (Excerpt)
Lee Lynch HONEYDEW MOON

 Introductions:

Patty G. Henderson We live in a harsh world. Technology rules and love is sometimes born and nurtured via an iPad, iPhone, or social media sites. Where is the romance? Lesbian fiction has its share of erotica anthologies, where passions, sex, and lust take center stage over tender romance. I yearned to see an anthology that captured those days gone by, where romance was sometimes slow and tender, but seething with passion beneath the velvet, satin, and proper restraint. I approached Liz McMullen with an idea to do an anthology honoring lesbian historical romance. It would be a first, and we would travel through history, telling tales of lesbian romance like the sands through an hourglass. I was honored that Liz wanted to see those stories too. And I do hope that readers who take the trip back in time to sneak a peek at lesbian love in the distant or exotic past or in not-so-distant times will be left all the more enriched and entertained.

Sacchi Green Through the Hourglass has been very much a group effort, so both Patty G. Henderson and I want to share our thoughts here, and publisher Liz McMullen will outline the charity aspect at the heart of our project. What could be more appropriate for an anthology focusing on historical stories of lesbians than helping organizations that benefit senior lesbians right now?

 History, to my mind, is the greatest story ever told—or too often left untold. Women loving women have been a fact of life for as long as love and women have existed. Who's to say some of those sculptors of full-bodied stone or ivory goddesses weren't women? We have always been here, in every era and every area of society, even though our stories have so seldom been told.

Fiction has its own power to deepen and intensify our perceptions and beliefs. Stories that show lesbians in well-researched historical settings, with passions fully recognizable today, rescue our past from invisibility and affirm our place through all time, past, present and future.

 The writers here are, of course, the real hearts and souls and inventive minds of Through the Hourglass, and their stories speak for themselves. We begin in the Old World with Megan McFerren’s “Völvur”, set in the Iceland of the 990s where the old Nordic beliefs have not yet given way to the newly arrived Christian missionaries, and girls called Wand-bearers still run free as messengers between the worlds.

Six hundred years later, in the mid-1500s, Heather Rose Jones’s “Where My Heart Goes” takes us to the Renaissance, where a woman’s royal privilege is offset by being a pawn of political intrigue and succession, but her heart is still her own to give, however long it takes.

 By 1692-93 in the New World, we find the brutal misogyny of the Salem Witch Trials pitted against the unbreakable bond between two women in Patty G. Henderson’s “In Full Moon Light”. Then, two centuries later during the War Between the States, in “Emma” by Priscilla Rhoades, a young woman passing as a man finds love in an unexpected setting before inevitably taking on the duties of a soldier. Meanwhile in Europe, also during the 1860s, Susan Smith’s “Saffron and Fennel” depicts an aristocratic widow taking on a man’s role in order to pursue archaeological exploration, and, with the scientifically trained daughter of a botanist at her side (and in her bed), discovering traces of women loving women as long ago as the early Cretan civilization. Just twenty years later, the characters in Cara Patterson’s “Propriety” struggle, with tenderness and wit, against class distinctions and the obligations of an Austrian Archduchess.

Back across the sea after half a century, in 1910, Doreen Perrine’s “A Year of Silent Promise” paints a complex scene of art and longing and the roughly beautiful coast of New England. Just a few years later, The Great War changes the world forever, and by 1917, an ambulance driver wounded in body and spirit by trench warfare in France encounters a free-spirited artist in England at “The Bridge” by Connie Wilkins. “Captain My Captain” by Lexy Walleans takes us forward four years to the postwar England of 1921 and another seacoast, where recovery and loss and memories of adolescent games of piracy affect the lives of childhood friends.

 The between-wars era of prohibition in the USA forms the colorful backdrop in 1928 to “The Rum Runner and the Show Girl” by R.G. Emanuelle, followed by a cluster of stories sparked by the drama of WWII. Jean Copeland’s “Nightingale” portrays the struggling nightclub scene on the home front, while MJ Williamz’s “My Elizabeth” depicts women like Rosie the Riveter building war planes, and Aliisa Percival’s “With a Spark” varies the theme with a celebrity visiting a Canadian bomb-building factory for a patriotic fund-raiser. Just a year later, in 1944, the characters in Allison Fradkin’s “With Ball Due Respect” pitch witty banter and score with each other as team members in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

The post-war decades bring us to times so recent that some of us remember them, and those who don’t know someone who does, but they still belong to the history that formed who we are today. Ann Bannon’s Beebo Brinker is an icon of lesbian literature, and here we have an excerpt from her book with all the grit and moody tension of Greenwich Village in 1962. Lee Lynch’s stories, too, have inspired us for years and continue to illuminate our world, and her evocative story “Honeydew Moon” is the perfect conclusion to our anthology, with an older, established couple in the 1980s sharing their memories of romance and struggle during the 1950s with young lesbians just beginning their adult lives.

 All these wonderful stories, with their passion, adventure, variety, and attention to historical details, have come together because of Patty G. Henderson’s original proposal.

From Publisher Liz McMullen A portion of the proceeds for Through the Hourglass will go to these charities that directly serve LGBT senior citizens: Services & Advocacy for GLBT Elders (SAGE) and The Gay & Lesbian Association of Retiring Persons, Inc. (GLARP). SAGE works to achieve a high quality of life for LGBT older adults, supports and advocates for their rights, fosters a greater understanding of aging in all communities, and promotes positive images of LGBT life in later years. Learn more about their mission and services by visiting their website: www.sageusa.org The Gay & Lesbian Association of Retiring Persons, Inc. (GLARP) is a non-profit corporation formed in 1996 by co-founders Mary Thorndal and Veronica St. Claire to call attention to the aging issues in the GLBT community. They are currently working on creating a retirement community for LGBT seniors. Visit their website to learn more about the organization and their mission: gaylesbianretiring.org/site.

Thunder of War, Lightning of Desire Is Available Now!

Edited to add: The paperback price is now correct on Amazon, $13.50.

Thunder of War, Lightning of Desire: Lesbian Historical Military Erotica is out now in Kindle format! The paperback will follow soon, but Amazon has the price of that wrong just now; it will be $15.00, not $35. Meanwhile, on Kindle it's $6.99.

Here's the Table of Contents, followed by my Introduction, to give you an idea of what these great writers have to offer:

War of the Rebellion
Pascal Scott—1862: The War Between the States: Tennessee

Found
Victoria Janssen—1863: The War Between the States: Virginia

Forbidden Love
J.B. Hickok—1900: The Boxer Rebellion: China

Delivery
Victoria Janssen—1916: WWI: France

Eagle of Death, Raven of War
Jessica Taylor—1917: WWI: Russia

The Battle of Blair Mountain
Dena Hankins—1921: The Battle of Blair Mountain: West Virginia

The Girl at the Window
Cara Patterson—1942: WWII: Russia

Moment of Peace
Jove Belle—1945: WWII: South Pacific

Watching
CB Potts—1952: Korean War: South Korea

Danger
Sacchi Green—1969: Vietnam War: Greenwich Village, New York

Introduction

History, to my mind, is the greatest story ever told. And, as with any narrative constructed by humans, it has errors, omissions, and a fair share of outright fiction. History fascinates me as much as any intentional fiction, even though I’ve come to realize the ways in which the stories of certain populations were told, and not told. Women have been largely ignored by preponderantly male historians, and LGBT people were either ignored or vilified, but in recent years more and more has come to light about their lives and roles, even in warfare, that most dramatic, memorable, and endlessly rehashed area of history.

This book is admittedly fiction. These are stories of lesbians who are active participants in warfare, and of lesbian sex as well, with passionate characters finding each other amidst the storm of war. Women come together for comfort, for relief, driven by adrenaline and hormones, hurling their pleasure into the teeth of mortality and cultural oppression.  They share frantic embraces, or dark humor, or whatever it takes to get them through the night, and through the war.  Tender or raw, harsh or healing, always intense, the sex is as integral to each story as any other component, including the historical settings. 

While the characters and some of the events are fictional, these settings are essentially authentic. There could be endless such stories told, beginning even before what we think of as recorded history. What might Artemis the Huntress with her bow or Athena Promachos with her spear and armor (both traditionally virgins, however that might be interpreted,) or the legends of Amazons, tell us about the unrecorded cultural roles of even earlier generations of women? And what about discoveries of ancient graves where some women were buried along with weapons of war in the same way as men? But for this book we chose to focus our attention on more recent history, from about 1860 to 1970, a span of only 110 years, but years of tremendous change, upheaval, and influence on the world we know now.

We begin, of course, with the American Civil War. Recent research has shown that more than six hundred women—probably many more—passed as men to fight in this war, and that’s not counting the nurses and spies. We can only speculate as to how many of them may have been lesbians (a term not then in use,) but among women with the daring and strength to flout cultural norms and put their lives on the line, the percentage was most likely higher than in the population as a whole. There certainly were some. The boyish Confederate soldier of Pascal Scott’s “War of the Rebellion,” endearingly awkward in a first adventure with both a girl and a mail-order “manhood,” is entirely plausible, and so is the strong minded runaway slave serving with a Union regiment in Victoria Janssen’s “Found”.

Set more than three decades later, with a shift in mood and atmosphere, we have the story of an uprising far away in China, The Boxer Rebellion of 1900. In J.B. Hickok’s “Forbidden Love” an anti-Western-Imperialism mob (backed by the Empress Dowager) forces Europeans and Chinese Christians to barricade themselves in the Legation Quarter of Beijing, and a British army nurse caught up in the furor becomes entangled in political upheaval within the Forbidden City as she tries to heal a desperately ill Royal Concubine.    

A decade and a half later, in World War I (The Great War, aka The War to End Wars,) women served as ambulance drivers as well as nurses. In Victoria Janssen’s “Delivery” a British woman whose company manufactures field telephones gets unexpected transport in an ambulance, and a transformative connection with an Arizona cowgirl volunteering as a driver.  In Jessica Taylor’s “Eagle of Death, Raven of War,”” set at about the same time in Russia, a young recruit with Maria Bochkareva’s Women’s Battalion of Death finds her smoldering hero worship flaring into much more as they brace to charge the German trenches.

Not all conflicts pitted nation against nation. Soon after WWI, in 1921, the United States saw its largest armed rebellion since the Civil War, when miners fighting to unionize in West Virginia bravely faced local, state, and even U.S. Army forces and bombings by U.S. Government planes.  Some strong women worked in those mines, alongside what men were left after WWI, and in “The Battle of Blair Mountain” Dena Hankins shows us two unforgettable characters, mountain-wise and gun-savvy, taking what scant cover they can find from the bombing, and what fierce distraction they can find with each other.

Then another two decades, and, inevitably, another conflict, World War II, spreads across continents and seas. Cara Patterson, in “The Girl in the Window,” shows a Russian woman sniper on duty in the ever-shifting rubble of Stalingrad, and an eerily attractive girl who has her own personal ways of killing enemies. In stark contrast, on the other side of the world, Jove Belle’s American WACs in the South Pacific are stuck against their wills on an island well behind the front lines, where boredom might kill them if they didn’t have each other to explore in “Moments of Peace.”

Another decade. Another war. Nurses in a MASH unit in Korea have no time for boredom, or for anything beyond using all their skill and energy treating massive wounds and eluding enemy shelling, but in “Watching,” by CB Potts, lust finds a way, between emergency surgery and loading patients on helicopters and puling up stakes to move the camp.

Yet another decade, and…well, you know the drill by now. Vietnam. My own story “Danger” takes a somewhat difference tack, with flashbacks to the still-raging war in Vietnam, but also with hints of the lingering effects of war on those who’ve returned. An Army nurse rotated back to duty at Walter Reed Hospital and an AWOL ambulance driver meet in the turmoil of a new kind of battle, in Greenwich Village, New York City, on June 28th, 1969. You’ve heard of the Stonewall Inn? This piece felt strange to write, because I knew the times and the territory myself. I wasn’t there on that day, or days, but I’d been there before, and was there many times afterward. It’s unsettling to think of one’s own life as history. History, though, is endless, as far as our minds can comprehend, and all our stories, all our lives, are ongoing parts of it, whether recorded or not.

Nothing I’ve told you here does justice to the full sweep and complexity of the stories in this book, or the talents of the writers. There are many more stories from this period equally worth telling. Try researching the Dahomey Amazons fighting the French in Africa in the 1890s, for instance, or women working undercover for Irish Independence in the 1920s, or the Russian Night Witches of WWII flying bombers—clumsy biplanes left over from that Great War that didn’t end war after all—to harry the German Army, or Israeli women with the Haganah organization fighting for statehood for decades. The list goes on and on.

If history interests you as much as it does me, you probably know all this already, and if you don’t, exploring any of these would be well worth your while. Unless you have the great good fortune to come across some especially revealing memoirs or letters, though—and please let me know if you do!—you’ll need to rely on your own imagination for the sex behind the warfare. I hope you’re as glad as I am that the writers of the stories told here have already done that for you, and done it so scorchingly well.

Sacchi Green

Amherst, MA

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_16?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=thunder+of+war+lightning+of+desire&sprefix=Thunder+of+War%2C+%2Caps%2C134

 

Sneak Peek at Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year (2016): Twentieth Anniversary Edition

BLE 16 is all firmed up, and I'm fired up! Here's the official list of stories and authors, and my introduction, to give you a sense of what's coming out next February for your bedtime reading delight (or stealthy commuter train pleasure.)

Readings are planned for New York City, a pre-publication event on December 17th in Kathleen Warnock's spoken-word series Drunken, Careening Writers at the KGB Bar, and a post-publication celebration on February 26th at Bluestockings Books, both in the East Village. More readings are in the planning stage.

I'll post a cover image as soon as I have an official one.

Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Vol. 1 (2016) Twentieth Anniversary Edition  

Contents

Introduction  Sacchi Green

Dust  Rose de Fer
Ascension  Louise Blaydon
Tomato Bondage  Teresa Noelle Roberts
The Royalty Underground  Megan McFerren
Reunion Tour  Harper Bliss
Hot Blood  D. L. King
Make Them Shine  Sossity Chiricuzio
Tears from Heaven  Jean Roberta
Luscious and Wild  Sinclair Sexsmith
Smorgasbord  R. G. Emanuelle
A Professional  Rose P. Lethe
Easy  Anna Watson
Grind House  Valerie Alexander
Give and Take  Annabeth Leong
Mirror, Mirror  Frankie Grayson
The Road to Hell  Cheyenne Blue
The Further Adventures of Miss Scarlet  Emily L. Byrne

About the Authors
About the Editor

Introduction

The Best Lesbian Erotica series has a special place in my heart. Twenty years ago, in 1996, Tristan Taormino and Cleis Press published the first volume of Best Lesbian Erotica, and in 1999, to my amazement, my own very first erotica story made it into that year's anthology. When Tristan Taormino called and said that she loved my piece because it was so different, I was hooked on the series and the entire genre for good. (Tristan also very kindly pointed out the many improvements I needed to make, of course; I had a lot to learn.) Seven more of my stories made it into further editions of Best Lesbian Erotica, although I got a bit distracted in recent years with editing ten themed anthologies of lesbian erotica myself, eight of them for Cleis Press. Editing this one feels like the greatest honor of all.

Back in 1996 there were far fewer markets for well-written lesbian erotica than there are now, but there were many majorly talented writers with the courage and the burning desire to tell the stories demanding to be told, stories that can still stir your senses and linger in your mind. There have been some changes in erotica over the years, largely in how far we dare to go and how much we think we can get away with, but I still remember stories from those earlier years as challenging as any written today.

The main difference these days is in the quantity of lesbian erotica available, and the numbers of people writing it well. For this 2016 edition (the title, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, has changed just a bit, but it’s still the same series) there was a superabundance of excellent work, and choosing was a harrowing as well as stimulating experience. Tastes differ, of course, especially when it comes to erotic preferences, so not every story will push every reader’s buttons, but for me the writers here make this edition outstandingly worthy of Best Lesbian Erotica’s long tradition of sexy excellence.
In the limited space of a single anthology, “best” has to take into account factors beyond any single measurement of quality. An apples and oranges comparison just won’t cut it; envision instead, say, peaches…smooth, rosy, rounded peaches…and pears…and maybe the occasional heavy melon… But don’t worry. No actual fruit metaphors are abused in this book.

Like Tristan way back then, the idea of “best” for me includes “different,” whether it’s a brand-new treatment of a familiar theme, a way with language that makes the words dance to an inspired beat, or a plot I’ve never seen before. Beyond those, each story has to contribute to a balance in the work as a whole, which should include a variety of themes, settings, voices, tone, and diversity of ages, ethnicities and physical attributes. Above all, “best” should mean original ideas, vividly drawn settings, creative imagery, fully developed, believable characters (even if occasionally that requires readers to suspend disbelief for the sake of arousal), and, of course, plenty of steamy sex, with intensely erotic scenes that flow naturally from the story as a whole, ranging from vanilla to BDSM to edgy frontiers that defy classification.

Originality takes many forms. D. L. King melds the familiar tropes of werewolves and lesbian auto mechanics into a character as likable as she is sexy. Megan McFerren’s characters take refuge in a London bomb shelter during WWII. Emily L. Byrne’s brilliant incarnation of Miss Scarlet seduces a police detective in the NYC subway system. Louise Blaydon’s “nice girl” and “bad girl” strike sparks together forming a band on the gritty side of Liverpool in 1961. There are stories with touches of humor, or moments of tenderness, or immersions in the no-holds-barred depths of bondage and the keen pleasures of pain—and now and then all three at once.

What you get, in this anthology, is a seemingly infinite variety of lesbian erotic desires, in all the heat, beauty and power of both our darkness and our light. I’m immeasurably grateful to all these writers who crafted their stories as only each one of them could, and offered them to be included here.
From me, from the writers, and, I hope, from many of you readers; Happy Twentieth Birthday, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year! Birthday spankings may be in order, but be gentle with your paperbacks. With e-books—well, maybe you’d better find a surrogate spankee. Just read a few of these stories with her to warm things up.

Sacchi Green
Amherst, MA

Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year (2016)

Three weeks ago I turned in the manuscript of Best Lesbian Erotica 2016--now with the title changed by the publisher to Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, Volume 1--and it's scheduled to come out in February. It will be a while before I hear about final approval of each story, but in my opinion (obviously) they're all terrific. It's been a bit of an adventure editing this, since I'm working with new publishing staff with the new owners of Cleis Press, Start/Midnight Publications, and I don't know how their tastes may differ from those I've been accustomed to, but I'm sure the anthology will be worthy of the fantastic series that will be in its twentieth year in 2016. I got my own start in erotica in BLE 99, with quite a few more appearances along the line, so this book has a specula place in my heart.

I've responded to all submissions, as far as I know, so if anyone submitted but didn't get a final response, please let me know.

For folks in the NYC area, it looks like we'll be doing a preview reading there in December; I'll keep you posted.

Here's the link for pre-ordering (yes, I know the cover still has the photo stock markings, but I'm sure that will be dealt with in good time.)
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Lesbian-Erotica-Year-1/dp/1627781544/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438874278&sr=1-1&keywords=best+lesbian+erotica+2016

Vampire Erotica to Help Nepal

Vampire erotica, and helping Doctors Without Borders with their work in Nepal? Who could resist?

Lisabet Sarai blog's today about her anthology Coming Together: In Vein. All proceeds from sales of the book will go to DWB, and to give you a taste, she's posted snippets from four of the stories, including my post-Civil-War western "Jessebel," featuring a transgender Civil War veteran whose lover, after dying  in his arms in the war, reappears years later as a stunning dance-hall girl in a Western saloon.

http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com/2015/06/how-to-help-nepal.html

Best Lesbian Erotica '16 Call for Submissions

Best Lesbian Erotica 2016
Editor: Sacchi Green
Publisher: Cleis Press
Deadline: June 1, 2015 (earlier encouraged)
Payment: $100 and 2 copies of the book within 90 days of publication

Rights: non-exclusive right to publish the story in this anthology in print, ebook and audiobook form. Authors will retain copyright to their stories. Standard Cleis Press contributor contract.

The Best Lesbian Erotica series has a special place in my heart. My first erotica publication was in BLE, many years ago, and I’ve had stories in eight volumes altogether, so I want to make this next edition worthy of the long tradition of sexy excellence. Only you writers can make this happen.
,
Give me your best work. Is there a story inside you burning to be written, or one already published that makes you especially proud--and extremely hot? I’ll consider up to two submissions per author, between 2000-4000 words preferred length. No simultaneous submissions. I’ll consider reprints, preferably published between June 2014 and June 2015, but hope to be seeing more new, unpublished work.

I want a variety of themes, voices, and tone. Diversity in ages, ethnicities, cultures, and physical attributes and abilities is welcome. The central figures must be lesbian, believable, fully developed characters. Give me vividly drawn settings, and plots or story arcs that grip the reader and don’t let go. Originality is especially welcome; write the story that only you can write. And, of course, I want intense sex scenes that flow naturally from the story as a whole. All flavors of sensuality are welcome, from vanilla to BDSM to edgy frontiers that surprise and startle the reader. A few stories with a speculative fiction bent, science fiction or fantasy, will be considered.

Send your submission as an attachment in .doc, .docx. or .rtf format, double spaced, Times New Roman black font, with story title, legal name, pseudonym (if applicable,) and mailing and e-mail addresses on the first page, to sacchigreen@gmail.com. Queries are welcome.

 Writers, start your engines!

Dark, Delicious, and Twisted: Book Bundle Blog Tour for Alison Tyler

For years, Alison Tyler has thrilled us with her novels, as well as dozens of anthologies-on-the-edge. [Keep reading here to find out about a give-away of one these, Twisted,] Now she’s presenting the greatest gift of all: herself. This trilogy of novels based partly on her own life is written with passion, lyricism, and a profoundly kinky sensibility.

I reviewed the first in the series, Dark Secret Love, when it first came out. Here’s just a taste of what I said:

“Does the idea of submission intrigue you, but the much-discussed books you’ve sampled seem to fall flat? Or do you long for work that truly resonates with what you already know you want? Does knowing that a story has true life at it core turn you on? Maybe you appreciate fine erotic writing, no matter what its flavor, or can’t resist an author who chooses her title from the vivid, surreal, enigmatic poetry of William Blake. How can you resist a juxtaposition of ‘dark,’ ‘secret,’ and ‘love?’

Nothing can describe this book as well as Alison’s own words, and she’s given us a wonderful excerpt that I’ve posted below, but humor me for a few minutes while I discuss some of my own reactions.
As the story unfolds, I was especially struck by the way Alison’s alter-ego, Samantha, had her own personal take on submission. Her need for pain with sex had less to do with the usual endorphins or amorphous sense of guilt, and more to do with finding her own core ability to endure, “take it,” even refuse to use a safe word. For her, submission expressed a secret strength, not a weakness. And, having already known so long just what she wanted from a man, her real moment of revelation came in this passage:
‘I need this, too,’ Jack told me. And everything changed. By taking care of me, he was taking care of himself. I don’t think I’d ever tried to envision the situation from a Dom’s point of view before.’

Just one more thought before serving the main course of Alison’s own words. Very near the end there’s an image that stays in my mind, as of course it’s intended to stay in every reader’s. Into Jack’s stark, minimalist, black-and white apartment, Samantha dares to introduce a strikingly red blanket—and Jack reveals how much he needs the closeness that lets him raise that same intense glow of color on her pale, lovely asscheeks.

In the Blake poem that supplies this book’s title, the line before ‘dark secret love’ includes the phrase “crimson joy.” The sequel to Dark Secret Love, coming out very soon now, has the fine title The Delicious Torment, but I find myself hoping that someday Alison will use the title Crimson Joy for a book. It would be great for a collection or anthology of spanking stories, but even better for another Alison Tyler novel.”


You can find my complete review including Alison’s own words here: http://sacchi-green.blogspot.com/2013/10/alison-tylers-dark-secret-love-guest.html

  Then came second book, The Delicious Torment, hitting me even harder than the first. Here’s some of what I had so say about it:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,…

You’ve seen Shakespeare’s sonnet number 116. You’ve probably heard it read. In fact, I read aloud it at my brother’s wedding. But it isn’t about weddings, as such, but about two people who match each other’s needs so perfectly that nothing can destroy their love.

Alison Tyler’s The Delicious Torment, the sequel to her Dark, Secret Love, is about two people with such intense, specific, on-the-edge needs that it seems like a miracle that they found each other.

Samantha, the heroine based on Alison Tyler herself, is “ensconced in an S/M relationship that makes everything I’ve done before turn a whiter shade of pale.” Jack is older, a high-powered lawyer, whose need to dominate through “pain and shame and utter humiliation” could only be satisfied by a woman like Samantha, as strong in her way as she is submissive. Pain and humiliation are pleasure to her, even when she dreads them, and they bring her to orgasm even when they bring her to tears. Jack gives her what she needs, and she loves him without reserve, while he needs her love as much as her submission, even though he needs her to prove that love over and over.

There are plenty of S/M books out there now, but nobody does it with as much style and skill as Alison Tyler. Nobody makes it as real, as convincing, as appealing even to people whose tastes have never run that way. And the story here is more than a series of “scenes,” even though the traditional canes and belts and crops and chains play their part. The relationship has its twists and turns and unexpected deviations, especially when it comes to involve a third person. There are adjustments and alterations that might strain a love less strong. Jack’s difficulty in trusting Samantha’s love and the lengths he goes to in testing her could have destroyed the very thing he craved. But no impediment is great enough to tear these true minds (and bodies) apart.

For more, and Alison’s own excerpts, go here:

http://sacchi-green.blogspot.com/2014/02/alison-tylers-delicious-torment-from.html

How can you resist going directly to the next book, Wrapped Around His Finger? This time I’ll let you immerse yourself in it with no preconceptions form me. Once I’ve savored it two or three more times, and caught my breath, maybe I’ll write another review.


Now for the give-away part. I’m offering two copies of Alison’s recent anthology,
Twisted: Bondage with an Edge.

My obvious reason for choosing this one is that I have a story in it myself, so I thought of posting an excerpt of that. On second thought, though, considering some reviews I’ve seen, maybe I’d better not. You might be better off not thinking my piece is representative of the book as a whole; in fact, there’s so much variety in the anthology that no single story can represent it. I’ll just quote a couple of reviews, so you can’t say you weren’t warned.

“Sacchi Green is so good at writing scary stories, and her ‘Stag Beetle’ was so well done - it'll be a cold day in hell before a story with insects in it will turn me on, but she writes the scene effortlessly - extremely evocative.”

And:

“’Stag Beetle,’ by Sacchi Green, is the most unusual story in this anthology. The one almost guaranteed to make people squirm. Would you let a big bug walk over you? How about if you were tied up? Think of those little insect feet on your bare skin. You know your safe word. Would you use it?’”

Really, my story is a rather sweet D/s romance. And hot. And with a very pretty silk kimono. What’s not to like? But all the other stories are much better. Trust me.

If you like short-short kinky stories, you’ll love the book as a whole.  If you want to win a free copy, just comment on this post,  and if somehow Blogger is uncooperative, you can comment over on my Facebook status where I discuss this post, or e-mail me at sacchigreen@gmail.com. You have until March 31 to enter.

Free E-Book! Beyond 50: An Erotic Sampler

Sample the BDSM erotic writing of 49 authors who know their way around the world of kink. Edited by DL King, free from All Romance E-Books.

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-beyond50-1747711-166.html

If you don't want to go to All Romance E-books for a copy, comment here and I'll send you a copy in PDF format. The whole purpose of the book is to introduce readers to the work of these excellent writers.

Why yes, I have a story excerpt in this one, involving A White Tigress in ancient China and the handmaiden who knows how to handle her while her Jade Dragon can only watch. The excerpt can stand on it's own, but you'll find the full story, White Tigress, Scarlet Stripes in my collection A Ride to Remember from Lethe Press.
http://www.amazon.com/Ride-Remember-Other-Erotic-Tales/dp/1590213203/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1424036173&sr=1-1&keywords=a+ride+to+remember+sacchi+green