Nearly four years into our relationship, my girlfriend and I still go on dates. Big dates, little dates, fancy dates, simple dates… it’s wonderful.

I hope your holiday season has been as wonderful as mine.  Some years we just go through the motions.  I half expected this one to be like that for me, but when I stopped to consider what the people I love might want this Christmas, the answers were right there in front of me.

I’ve finally realized the gifts people appreciate most are the gifts that show you’ve been listening all year long.  For instance, one of my sisters mentioned months ago that she hates buying toilet paper. She finds it earth-shatteringly humiliating, and she would go to any lengths not to have to buy it.

So what do you think I gave her (and delivered discretely to her home)?

That’s right.As many rolls as she could store.  She was over the moon.  I’ve spent way more money on her gifts in the past and never yielded such enthusiastic results.

But my favourite gift this year was finding out my lyd anthology My Mistress’ Thighs: Erotic Transgender Fiction and Poetry won an honorable mention (5th runner-up) in the Best Bisexual/Transgender Contemporary category of the 2011 Rainbow Awards!

You can read more about the winners here: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/1462137.html Congratulations to everyone who won or was nominated. Isn’t nice when your hard work is recognized?

My Mistress’ Thighs is available in print and as an ebook:

A cross-dressing cowboy, a post-war pin-up, and a wolf in grandmother’s clothing all find a special home in My Mistress’ Thighs. This collection of erotic transgender fiction and poetry by Giselle Renarde makes room for everyone. There’s a secret solstice sacrifice, a case of spring fever, an online romance, and a Wednesday night dinner routine that’s anything but dull. This anthology includes erotic favorites, new surprises, and never-before-seen poetry. From the timid closet dresser of “Love in the Time of Instant Messenger,” to the post-op rodeo queen of “Leslie Goosemoon Rides Again,” all who seek love find it in the world of Giselle Renarde Erotica.

 

–
Giselle Renarde

Canada just got hotter!

Visit me online
http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
http://www.wix.com/gisellerenarde/erotica
http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde

This post is going out to my Sweet. We’ve been arguing a lot lately, and yesterday I compared our relationship to a cat and a dog clawing at each other inside a burlap sack. So, today is the day for big hugs. Big ADORABLE ANIMAL hugs. (I love you, sweetheart)

And to anybody else who needs a hug right now, here are some of the best hugs on the planet:

Big (Human) Hugs,

My goodness, disembodied torso, what a fabulous chest you have!I see that you’re paired with a gorgeous woman on this cover.I guess that means you’re straight.I’m also going to assume, based on the fact that you have no head, that you are driven entirely by your animal nature.If there were a wolf on this cover, I’d be convinced.But even without the wolf, I’m sure you’re a man’s man with your feelings buried deep inside, where only this woman, who is so much like me we could paste my picture over her face, can find them.Men like you are my secret desire.

…actually…they’re not.Not MINE, which puts me in the minority around the romance community.But that’s okay, I’ll just sit in my corner with my head against the wall, scribbling away about queers like me.(As a queer woman, I am allowed to say that.Don’t call in the referee just yet.)I’m a loner anyway. And maybe someday someone will discover one of my stories curled up in a bottle and find they actually like it.Maybe.Some day.

Okay, I’m being a little melodramatic here.All I really intended to write about (in a totally non-melodramatic way) was that the stuff readers love, devour, guiltlessly consume, is exactly the stuff I don’t write.So, the bestsellers, the money-makers, the man-with-the-chest books… they’re not mine.That’s not what I write.It would really help pay the rent if I did…but I don’t.

I actually have a story to accompany this confession.It’s kind of a nice story.About a month ago, I was approached by a publisher I work with often and love, love, love.They wrote to tell me the love is mutual, so much so that they wanted to commission some novellas from me for a new erotic romance line they’re looking to introduce.

Wow!That was a huge compliment.I felt all warm and fuzzy until I read the submissions guidelines for the line: hetero only, no gay content, no BDSM. Must feature a “strong Alpha Male hero” and “feisty” but loveable heroine.

So, I’m sure the majority of romance writers would crack their knuckles, lick their lips, and pound one out on the keyboard (a story, of course), but all I could do was stare at those words, “strong Alpha Male” and…okay, I admit it, I cringed a little bit.I did.Strong Alpha Males have got to be my biggest turn-off in the history of everything.Maybe it’s a “lesbian thing,” but I don’t think that’s it, not entirely.I suspect there are women out there who identify as straight and would agree with this appraisal.The grunting, salivating, dominating and domineering “man with the chest” is…yucky.Yes, I realize he is the fantasy of the many, but he is sooooo not mine.

And please don’t get me started on how much I hate hearing a woman described as “feisty”—my feminist Spidey Sense finds “feisty” an infantilizing word, in that it minimizes women who speak out against patriarchal oppressions of all kinds, including unwanted male attention…but I said I wasn’t going to start, didn’t I?So I won’t.

Anyway, I went back and forth a lot on this one.It was an honour to be asked to produce work for a new line.The publishers knew they were taking a chance, setting foot outside their normal terrain, and they asked me to come with them.I never want to end up in anybody’s bad books, and I feel like turning down work is just…not a good idea generally.But I knew in my gut what they were asking for was not consistent with the work I produce.It didn’t appeal to me, and I really didn’t feel I could make a story work if neither my heart nor my hips were invested in the project.

But I said to myself, “You’re a writer—you should be able to produce any kind of story you’re asked to.”And maybe I could…but just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.(The KFC double down is an excellent example—you can probably afford to buy yourself bacon sandwiched between two deep-fried pieces of chicken, but does that mean it’s a good idea?)

In the end, I wrote my publisher back and politely declined the commission.It means a lot to me that I can devote my time to writing queer fiction, fiction that appeals to me and that represents who I am in this world.A lot of readers love the man with the chest, but a lot of writers write him.In fact, I’m sure the number of books of this type currently on the market far exceeds the demand for them.

And let me clarify: I don’t have anything against people who write the man with the chest, or people who read him.It’s just not to my taste, just like my transgender stories, or my lesbian stories, or my bisexual or otherwise queer stories, or my adultery stories, or my hipster stories, or my stories that are erotic without any romantic component at all…aren’t to everybody’s taste.That’s cool.

Before I hop away, I should also mention that I often hear writers stating, with the voice of absolute authority, that ALL women love the man with the chest.Some say that it’s a “natural” component of a woman’s existence to love the Strong Alpha Male, and…kids, that’s not cool. It places me, my taste, and my sexuality under erasure, and I have no desire to be erased.

If I’m writing about guys, they’re probably going to be shy or nerdy or guilt-ridden or, or, or… There are exceptions, I’m sure, and I don’t write any of this to be unpopular, but the Man with the Chest? He’s not for me. Which is okay, because if you like him…more chests for you!

Hugs,

Giselle Renarde

Canada just got hotter!

Giselle Renarde is author of:
Red Satin Christmas

What fun would a family Christmas be if everybody got along?

This is a Christmas of firsts for girlfriends Regan and Maisie. Maisie hasn’t returned to her hometown since beginning her transition from male to female. Her mother and sisters welcome her with open arms, but what about brother Jerry? Is he just going to ignore her forever? And who is this mystery woman he’s brought home for the holidays?

Regan figures she’s just along for the ride, lending her girlfriend support, until Maisie’s mother surprises her with a special dinner guest. Regan hasn’t spoken to her hard-drinking Cree father in years, and he’s the last person in the world she wants to sit across from at Christmas dinner. Can Regan finally trust the man who’s once again claimed to have changed for good?

Together, Regan and Maisie face drama beyond their wildest imaginings. Will their trials during this eventful family Christmas challenge their bond… or vanquish their limitations?

Available Now!

I don’t know what kind of excuses I can make for myself. Unsettled? Unsatisfied? Ants in the pants? Always wanting more, more, more?

Lately, I’ve been looking at new publishers. In fact, I’ve gone beyond looking and I’ve actually submitted to a few. Why do it? I already work with quite a few different publishers, and I’m pretty damn fulfilled by what they have to offer. So why stray? Well, I’m pretty prolific, especially with short stories, and I wouldn’t want to overload any one publisher, but that’s just a surface reason.

Bisexual Ballerina Erotica

I guess, ultimately, I like to see what a new publisher has to offer. I like to get in on the ground level and see how things go. With this plan (if it can be called a plan) I’ve had good luck and bad luck. Getting on board with Selena Kitt and eXcessica Publishing was most fortuitous, and I’ve been very happy there. That’s where I’ve placed books like Ondine, Audrey & Lawrence, The Birthday Gift, Future Histories, and other works your run-of-the-mill erotic romance publisher probably wouldn’t have looked at.

I can think of another publishing house, whose name I will politely decline to mention here, I wish I’d never signed with–terrible marketing, the worst distribution I’ve ever encountered, and without a word of a lie, I haven’t earned back the postage it cost me to mail in my contracts on two of the stories I placed there…which was around $2.50 apiece. Not just that, but customers have complained to me about the rude and belligerent “customer service” they’ve received when attempting to purchase from the publisher’s website, and there’s not much I can say because I as an author am treated just as badly. Live and learn.

Most recently, I’ve placed my ebook Goose Girl with New Dawning Bookfair. I was drawn there because I know Dee from eXcessica and I had a manuscript that suited their Twisted Tales line of erotic fairy tale adaptations. All I know so far is that Dee is a brilliant marketing strategist and the editing is superb.

Cougar MMF Menage

Around the same time, I answered a call for submissions at Secret Cravings Publishing. They were seeking Cougar stories, so I wrote Callie and the Hipsters , a MMF menage novella about a woman whose husband leaves her for the young woman he impregnated (I love family drama) and so she hooks up with two of her son’s pansexual polyamorous hipster buddies. I figure I’m enough of a Hipster Doofus (though I probably should have aged out of the club by now) to poke fun at myself.

On my to do list, I’ve got notes to submit to other new or new-to-me publishers, but it becomes a dance of submit-what-where? You’re taking a chance, submitting your work into hands you don’t yet know, but the pay-off can be great. On the flip side, you could end up with feeble sales and asshole associates. Beyond consulting Piers Anthony’s site, and preditors & editors, and others, it’s really hard to know what you’re getting yourself into, particularly when the company is a start-up and nobody has much experience with them yet.

So, authors, how do you feel about submitting to start-ups? Are you afraid they’re going to crash and burn? Or do you figure an older publisher could screw you over just as badly (as we’ve seen a few I won’t mention do to their authors lately)?

Give me feedback. Tell me what you think!
Hugs,
Giselle

–
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

Visit me online

http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com

http://www.wix.com/gisellerenarde/erotica

http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde

–
Giselle Renarde