And I was completely clueless about recasting an S/M classic and modernizing it.

But my editor wasn’t. She saw the possibility — and knew my potential. When she proposed that I write a lesbian version of Story of O (and that we would unapologetically call it Story of L), I almost fell out of my seat.

By the time I righted myself, I knew I’d write the book. Love at first sight works like that.

But building a relationship with your novel is like any other relationship. It takes work. I decided I wanted to write a kink novel featuring characters already experienced in BDSM. We have plenty of novels from the newbie perspective and plenty of light tales of BDSM LOVE. We don’t have many novels set in the “experienced” world of BDSM.

That decision made Story of L a challenge from the outset, made it a much higher platform than I had ever before attempted. Now I know how high platform divers feel when they step up their game.

Story of O is a seminal work. It won both public scorn and literary awards upon its release in 1950′s France. It was, if I remember correctly a book club choice twenty-plus years later in America, placing it in nightstand drawers across the country. The late Susan Sontag composed a essay arguing that O was as literary a novel as anything in the stuffy institutional literary cannon, raising eyebrows everywhere in either scowls or elucidation.

Which told me this: I had to write Story of L as if it had to be a legacy work. And I had to make sure Story of L reflect the queer leather world as contemporary to our here and now as O was in it’s. Only time will tell if I achieved the former but I’m reasonably confident I’ve managed to produce the latter.

I’m deeply satisfied that Story of L, the story that overtook my writer’s existence for quite some time, has finally stepped into the light of day. I hope you favor it with your time and that it rewards you with the satisfaction of am engaging and erotic read.

And, as the name suggests, it’s a retelling of the seminal Story of O, recast as a lesbian tale. How that came to be is a tale for another day (or twelve hours from now, after a good night’s sleep), but for now, I’ll leave you with this:

Liv called her hunger The Void. She thought she knew it – and herself.

Until a night with Cassandra silenced it.  And brought out something in Liv she didn’t think possible: submission.

One taste of that, and Liv wanted more.

But Cassandra isn’t an easy dominant.  She expects Liv to earn her way into her good graces.  And her demands aren’t simple.

How many hurdles will Liv need to jump before she can kneel before Cassandra?  Before Cassandra chooses to claim her?

Just what will it take to become Cassandra’s “L?”  And will the outcome be all she hopes for – and needs?

Find out in a timeless tale, retold.  In Story of L. Available from Ravenous Romance and all e-book booksellers.

Over the summer, my college-aged, production-savvy daughter helped me assemble an exciting DVD/CD promotional package, specifically geared to the erotic romance/erotica reader. It’s a DVD/CD package that has book trailers, author commentaries, and book excerpts of all my novels.

My novels are exceptionally kinky and probably not for the faint-of-heart. But if you’re an adventurous, open-minded reader and game for interesting twists of erotic extremes, then you might enjoy my work.

If you’d like one of these babies, simply email me at debrawriting at cox dot net, provide your snail mail address, and I’ll send you a DVD/CD combo at no cost to you. (Adults only, please.)

I absolutely promise to regard your snail mail address as sacrosanct. I will not share it and if I have future offerings, I will contact you first via email.

I hope you’ll check out this freebie of mine. We had such fun putting it together and I’d like to pass our enthusiasm to you!

But What’s Hot isn’t all about me. I share the spotlight with fellow authors Earl Sewell and Kat Martin. Somehow, All Romance eBooks rounded us up during Book Expo America, a HUGE cattle drive of a publishing industry event. Talk about expert wrangling!

If you can’t make the actual 9:30 show, not to worry. You can download the podcast and enjoy it at your leisure. Be sure to check out their previous shows as well!

I’m also pleased to share word with you that erotic author Louisa Burton, known for her Hidden Grotto books, kindly hailed my book for evoking

“a world of sacred sensuality and dark intrigue that’s sure to appeal to those with a taste for erotic fantasy.”

Louisa’s books are wonderful reads and I’m grateful to earn her nod.

training-desire
Enjoy the video and, if it leaves you so inclined, check out Training Desire!

Think Jacqueline Cary (Kushiel’s Dart) meets George R.R. Martin (Song of Fire and Ice series) meets Anne Rice (Beauty series).

Mira’s world is an omni-sexual landscape where pleasure is ordained by the great goddess, Rangtha, and the people of her kith house cater to her worshipers in every way imaginable — without prejudice towards orientation or taste.

Which means there’s plenty of het, m/m, and f/f couplings. And that’s before Mira loses here virginity. Imagine the possibilities in future editions! Wonders await us all.

Born into the pleasure world of Kith House, Rangtha in the fading city of Nameda, Mira is poised to enter the ranks of the revered pleasure-giver. Her only goal is to serve her goddess, Rangtha, by giving her virginity to a worthy recipient.

Yet she’s an innocent, unaware of the strife that surrounds her. Rival mentors pit themselves one against the other. Rapacious citizens exuberantly bid for hers virginity. And shadowy factions — for good or for ill — see Mira as the symbol of the future.

Rarely has one so innocent had to stand up to dangers so blatant. But rarely has Nameda seen the likes of Mira, a celebrant determined to fulfill her goal according to the ways of her goddess.

Training Desires. Spinning Mira’s world into existence has been one of the most exhuberant writing experiences of my life and I hope you’ll help me make Training Desires a Ravenous Romance bestseller so I can continue to sping her world, and other equally exciting realms, into existence.

Because we all deserve pleasure.

It’s deeply rewarding to see ideas imagined and put to prose see publication, and I’m happy to be in the new media mix that’s the e-book world. (This, despite a home filled with printed books and the collector’s habits that go with it.)

For quite some time, I felt like my novels would never see the light of day. I couldn’t find a print publisher to save my life that was interested in any romantic erotic that stepped beyond light bondage and role-playing and into authentic BDSM storytelling. (This, despite the 20-plus year popularity of Anne Rice’s Beauty books.) But Carnal Desire Publishing and, later, Ravenous Romance, changed all that for me, for which I’m deeply grateful.

I’m also grateful to Lori Perkins at RR’s blog where she acknowledged me as a “prominent short story and e-book author who really knows the BDSM territory. In this novel, she’s written an amazingly romantic tale of a couple’s visit to an S&M retreat as an anniversary present.”

To top it all off, Ravenous Romance has bought my four-book fantasy series that follows a devotee to a goddess of sexual pleasure as she journeys from initiate to captive to outcast, only to return to avenge her goddess against a usurper. Lori calls it a cross between “Jacqueline Carey’s Kushiel series and Anne Rice’s Beauty books.” I’d add “with a dash of George R. R. Martin” for those of you who like multiple characters rotating through each chapter. Regardless, it’ll be exciting to see my Kith series into publication.

Before this entry threatens to turn this blog into a gratitude journal, let me wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year. And you can guess what my one resolution will be — BLOG MORE!

I’m happy to report that Ravenous Romance launched today, bringing its cache of provocative erotic romance to avid readers everywhere. You’ll find a handful of initial novels and short stories there in ebook and audio formats — with more to coming daily mid-month.

My first novel with Ravenous Romance, Blind Seduction, will drop December 20th. And I couldn’t be happier. The editors I’ve worked with appreciate solid, exciting story-telling, dedicate the resources to copy editing necessary to make a strong book exceptional, and are remarkably, enthusiastically open to most any erotic variation you can think of.

I’ve also contributed to what will be a Twelve Days of Christmas selection of short stories, scheduled to debut during the holiday season. Ambitious me, but I ran with Ten Lords A’Leaping, making it a hot, M/M tale of guys getting it on. Yum.

And I’ve almost completed my second novel for RR as well, a fantasy tale called Desire’s Pursuit that I hope will become a multi-novel series. More on that as it develops.

FYI, fellas: Yes, Ravenous Romance is primarily geared for women and, yes, you will find romantic elements in its offerings, but I can guarantee you that if you like the erotic word, you’ll enjoy this publisher’s titles. Personally, I haven’t had to scale back any of my erotic writing with Ravenous Romance; I’ve only had to expand the connectedness of my principal characters, an element that existed in most of my previous erotica, just to a lesser degree.

Hope you’ll check out the site and buy a couple of ebooks. Hey, it keeps us lusty writers working!

The single-most reason I didn’t enter the e-book realm sooner was a lack of attractive covers. I simply didn’t like what I saw publishers putting out and found them so lacking that I didn’t want my own work associated with them. Yes, I’d been spoiled by the beautiful covers that graced the anthologies in which my short stories appeared, but I also found many e-book covers so off-putting that I seldom bought an e-book.

When I finally stuck my toe in the waters of e-book publishing, I was lucky that Carnal Desires Publishing allowed me a lot of leeway in cover art. (I’m forever thankful they were so wonderfully collaborative in the process.) Giving up that collaboration when Ravenous Romance came along was difficult for me.

Their first batch of covers began to allay my fears. Their design was crisp and energetic. I especially loved those like Playgirl and Cybill In Between. Granted, I’m given to fetish/BDSM imagery, but it remained important because it revealed Ravenous Romance’s approach to subject matter.

When I saw Blind Seduction’s cover, I was flattered and flabbergasted. The designer symbolically caught key elements of the novel’s pinnacle scene (and, no, I’m not going to tell you what they are). The title treatment echoes the prominent blindfold — deliciously so! — and I’m impressed to find a statute representing the book’s key protagonist in what I interpret to be symbolic of the subtle objectification she experiences throughout the tale.

So, wow. Impressive. I’m one happy author in waiting.

But you know what? That’s all part-and-parcel of being a novelist. Through all my years as a short story writer, I worked on novels. I finished two, had three in various stages, and more story ideas than I knew what to do with. (Oh, for a forty-hour day and endless energy!) However, until I had publishers to work with, I didn’t feel like a working novelist. A working writer? Yes. But not a working novelist.

I tell you, having a contract and deadlines make all the difference in the world. Each day, the workload before me is part of the avenue each book must travel to see publication. And like an avenue on a map, there’s starting place and a finishing line to the process. Before now, writing a novel was like a scenic hike done during one’s leisure time. It was enjoyable, rewarding, and worth the undertaking. But it had no real end point; the process had an intangible feel to it.

All that evaporated when Ravenous Romance signed me on for two books. And boy, does that feel nice.

BTW, Ravenous Romance has a new free short story, Hot Fling, on its site. Download and enjoy, please!