Hi everybody!
Giselle here.  When I asked myself what I wanted to blog about today here at FAB, one topic grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me into submission:

Wedding Heat 

What is Wedding Heat?

Glad you asked! Wedding Heat is my new erotic series. The first ebook came out in late April, and a new Wedding Heat title will be released every two weeks or so. The stories are all centered around Maggie and Ed’s wedding at a luxury woodland resort, but forget the happy couple—it’s the guests that make this wedding sizzle! There are family, friends, and co-workers of all genders and sexual preferences attending Maggie and Ed’s wedding. Some are looking for love, some for new experiences, but nobody anticipated the kind of sexual release they would find in the woods. We’re talking HOT STUFF, so adults only.

Why Wedding Heat?

Lots of readers LOVE weddings, so why not a whole SERIES dedicated to the naughty goings-on at one wedding? Sure the bride and groom get in on the action, but weddings are about so much more than the happy couple. Guests flock to weddings with their own expectations, their own baggage, and their own desires. So, as much as the Wedding Heat series is anchored by the happy couple, it’s really an ongoing tale of the wedding as a whole. I’m sure most of us have attended more weddings as guests than we have as brides or grooms.

Why a series instead of a book?

I love falling in love with characters on TV and visiting them every week, but with so many reality shows on television now, I find I’m watching TV less and less. I started asking myself where I could satisfy my need to form those kinds of bonds with fictional characters. Stories? A series of stories? Yes! Perfect. That’s why I started writing the Wedding Heat stories. I figured there were probably other readers in the same boat, people who want something to look forward to as the weeks go by, something to fill that void. That’s why I decided on short stories–they would take up about the same amount of time as watching a TV show.

Where can I get Wedding Heat stories?

Each installation of Wedding Heat will be sold as an individual ebook from eXcessica Publishing and available through pretty much every major distributor–like Amazon, All Romance, and Barnes & Noble. Though there are common threads throughout and readers will get the full impact of ongoing plot lines by reading stories in order, the series is written in such a way that you can pick up anywhere and enjoy a really sexy story.

What do the covers look like?

The covers of Wedding Heat titles all look something like this one for the first ebook in the series:

The first two Wedding Heat titles (One in the Hand & Two in the Bush) are available now. To get in on the action, check out the Wedding Heat release schedule at the series website: http://weddingheat.wordpress.com/

Hugs,

Giselle

Find Giselle Renarde at:

Her blog: http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
Her website: http://www.wix.com/gisellerenarde/erotica
Twitter: http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde

Nanny State: Lesbian Kink by Giselle Renarde

Are we all having mid-90′s SNL flashbacks now?  Should I sing a few bars?  And dance?  Maybe  not.

This post originally appeared as a guest blog chez Sommer Marsden, but I thought I’d revive it because I’m not done talking about smut… or my new release, Nanny State–a kinktacular lesbian sextravaganza.

If you ask me, Nanny State is SMUT with a capital S (and M… and U and T).  It’s a story driven by some of the kinkiest sex I’ve ever written, and some of the most intense discipline.  It’s a story built around sex and control, a stern landlady introducing university-aged Summer to extreme kink.  It’s deliciously dirty, start to finish.  To me, that’s smut, and I rejoice in this label I’ve adhered to my yummy little book.

But one night I happened to refer to Nanny State as “smut” in front of my girlfriend, and she was taken aback.  My Sweet happens to be a grammar geek and editor extraordinaire, so she helped me shape Nanny State into its current and final form.

“Nanny State isn’t smut!” she said. “It’s fun and (something) and delightful!”  *I say (something) because I know there was a word in the middle of that statement, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.  This is what happens when I don’t write things down.

Anyway, I put up a counter-argument.  I said sure Nanny State was smut. There’s sex in every chapter of this book, and the sex is what drives the narrative forward like a locomotive engine.  To me, that’s smut.

Sweet disagreed.  When she thinks smut, she imagines poorly-written wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am drivel.  “There’s a lot of sweet stuff in Nanny State.  There’s strong characterization.  That’s not smut.”

This is sounding a whole lot like the recent “erotica versus erotic romance” debate that became instantly relevant when All Romance ebooks split its shelves between those two categories, giving moral primacy to a very specific sort of story line narrowly delineated by the progression of a love relationship and its culmination in the promise of a future together.

Strangely enough, by those standards, Nanny State fits the “erotic romance” category.  Well, if you ignore the fact that there are ultimately 3 women who form this “happy couple” and one of them takes on a very maternal role over the other two. And the fact that the budding relationship between Summer and university peer Kira begins when Summer offers Kira money in exchange for sex.

You’d never see it in the beginning, but a strong love develops between all three women in this book.  The love comes via sex, discipline, control, rebellion, age play, and ultimately abandoning ego concerns to give oneself over to another.

I’m pretty sure every author will tell you every so often they write a book that seems to come out of nowhere.  They didn’t plan it, it was way out of their comfort zone, but at the same time it seemed to write itself.  Nanny State was one of those books.  I’m a pretty prolific author, but this book got me excited.  I remember sitting here writing 3 words and then bouncing in my chair, clapping my hands, and saying, “Oh my god, that’s so hot!”

And, to me, that’s smut.  It was so hot, so dirty, so beyond my own kink zone (especially the extreme age play–Summer and Kira even dress up as babies and suckle Nanny’s breasts) and yet so fascinating that it got me excited.

My sense is that “smut” is a word we erotica authors are beginning to reclaim. Not all, but some, and that’s always how it starts out.  My Sweet is “of a different generation” (that’s my polite way of calling her an old lady LOL) and we often come up against linguistic comfort zone differences.  For instance, I identify as queer, whereas she cringes when she hears the word, because of its connotations prior to being reclaimed.

What is SMUT these days?  Is the word well on its way to being reclaimed, or does it still spell CRAP in most people’s minds?  Does love, or even a story line, preclude a book from being categorized as smut?  Or is smut just code for hot sex in any context?

What do we think, people?

Hugs,
Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!
—
Giselle Renarde is smutifying the world one story at a time.  Her latest release is Nanny State:

Nanny State: Lesbian Kink by Giselle Renarde

When Summer moves in with her mother’s friend, she expects to be treated like an adult.  Fat chance!  Victoria exerts control over every aspect of her life, protectively setting parental controls on the television and demanding Summer come straight home after her university classes.
Everything changes the day Victoria catches Summer watching some very kinky lesbian porn.  The landlady soon becomes the ‘Nanny’, coaxing Summer into the big bed for play time.
The unlikely couple embarks upon a series of naughty adventures, from suckling to discipline to diapers.  But what happens when Summer wants to include a girl her own age?  Will Nanny punish the wayward girl or accept another charge into their uncommon household?
Warnings: This title contains graphic descriptions of lesbian sex and threesomes, age play, spankings, discipline, domination, and other fetish activities that may be considered objectionable to some readers.

Buy Now from eXcessica: http://www.excessica.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=540
or Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Nanny-State-Lesbian-Kink-ebook/dp/B007Q1H1NK/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_t_1
or any number of other retailers.

For more information, check out: http://donutsdesires.blogspot.ca/2012/03/new-release-nanny-state-lesbian-kink.html

Yes, that’s right! My first FREE ebook was rolled out last week, and I want everybody to own it. Well, everybody who is over 18 and enjoys erotica–those are my only two caveats, I guess. So if you know people who are over 18 and enjoy erotica, tell them about this book! And pick one up for yourself, while you’re at it.

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