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.

Why? Well, because…

First, because I love everything about the printed word and because Ravenous Romance really has something here with its Ravenous Nights reading series, I became its publicist and organizer. You can read all about the event at its website. Follow us at Twitter and Facebook. You know, the usual social networking stuff!

If you’re a published erotica or erotic romance author and want to read for us sometime, contact me at debrawriting at cox dot net.

Then, second, I finally finished and turned in my fourth novel. I’ll make a genuinely BIG announcement about it once the cover art’s available. Somehow, cover art makes its existence seem concrete!

Third (and significantly), I joined Ravenous Romance as an acquiring editor! Yes, after years of authoring short stories and novels, I’ve decided to shepherd the works of other authors into publication. I’ll continue to write the occasional short story and will still strive for a novel a year under my own name, but I love books and I want to bring books into existence.

So what am I looking for? Specifically, I’d like to see novels in the M/M, menage, lesbian, shape-shifting and kink categories. And I’m also looking for older erotica/erotic romance works that have fallen out of print, with rights returned to you, the author. If they saw print once and can be tweaked to meet erotic romance conventions, I’d love to return them to life!  Query me at the same email address above.

I’m also editing anthologies for Ravenous Romance under the name Debra Wilson-Koss, the first of which celebrates back-door loving.  The Call is here and don’t let my new name confused you. It’s the same old renegade me!

So there you have it, and here I am, re-minted and ready for action.  Or at least whirlwinds!

RAVENOUS ROMANCE™ LAUNCHES NEW YORK CITY READING SERIES
Publisher of erotic fiction to launch Ravenous Nights at Lower East Side venue

[Boston, MA – February 1, 2011] – Ravenous Romance™, a leading online publisher of erotic romance novels and short stories has announced a collaboration with New York City literary hot-spot Happy Endings Lounge to host a monthly erotic reading series on the first Friday of every month called Ravenous Nights. Happy Endings, a funky 2-story club that was once a massage parlor, is located at 302 Broome Street. The first Ravenous Night is scheduled for Friday, February 4 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., and it is free of charge.

The lineup for February 4 includes:

• Cecilia Tan, best-selling erotic author of the Magic University series
• Caridad Pinero, New York Times best-selling erotic romance author
• Mo Beasley, founder of Urban Erotika, a spoken word performance series
• KT Grant, author of The Princess’ Bride
• Debra Hyde, acclaimed writer of BDSM erotic romance and author of the BDSM classic, BLIND SEDUCTION.

In celebration of Ravenous Nights, Barnes & Noble has announced that they will offer free copies of the Ravenous Romance anthology Once Upon a Threesome to the first 100 people to download it. In addition, Ravenous Romance will give each attendee a free Ravenous Romance drink coaster to each attendee and the Happy Endings Lounge will create a special “Ravenous” cocktail which will only appear on the menu during Ravenous Nights.

Ravenous Nights
Friday, February 4, 2011
8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Free of charge
Location: Happy Endings Lounge
302 Broome Street (at Forsyth St)
(212) 334-9676

In the name of all things erotic, let’s party!

But the bane of this process?  The space right in front this picture window. I swear it’s messing up the feng shui of the room almost as badly as the upright piano off to its left.  The piano, I can do nothing about. My spouse wants to keep it, a family heirloom, and to say he’s been giving and kind about the books about the house would be a gross understatment on my part. Sometimes, one must give back in equal gesture.

click for enlarged image

So, the window.  I’ve decided I want to put a work table there to provide a place to sort books, keep research files (in piles, most likely. LOL!), and house other in-progress sundries.  If I could squeeze some small bookcases into the setup, all the better. I think I’d like to keep its length to equal the broad span of the picture window because of surrounding furniture, but everywhere I look for possibilities, I’m underwhelmed.  A prime example: IKEA work tables.

I suppose I have images of finely constructed home libraries in my head — you know, the kind you’d find in books about the subject — and I’m not really that way. I’m far too practical and price-conscious.  But I’m willing to entertain ideas, so let me put it to you: What would you do? Have you seen any interesting work tables in your home design adventures?

I don’t have space measurements at this time (I’m on the road, traveling), but I will when I return home. The only restrictions I have are no dark woods, white, or all-metal tables. The room’s woods tend towards maple in hue.

So, ideas?

(P.S. I’ll provide a pictoral tour of my library once the reorg is finished.

A decade previous to this date, I embarked on writing short erotic fiction. Dozens of my stories appeared in major anthologies from Cleis Press, Alyson Books, the now-defunct Venus Book Club, Berkley Heat, and more.

Visit ravenousromance.com's gigantic celebration sale!

Until Lori Perkins blew me away by inviting me to submit Ravenous Romance. She remembered my writing and publishing creds — something every writer prays for — and just when I questioned whether to continue on, she gave me the very outlet I needed to journey on. I had a whole new reason to celebrate and cherish opportunity. Since then, Lori and her partners have brought two of my novels into e-print. They’ve asked for several more, including one that is shaping up to be an opus of a lifetime. And, most soulful to me, they’ve allowed me to write from the erotic edge. Not once have they asked me to softball my erotic portrayals.

Today, all of us Ravenous Romance authors are celebrating our good fortune. We’re ecstatic. And our publisher is celebrating, too, by offering all full-length ebooks to the reading public for a mere .99 cents. Go, check it out, and if you’re fond of my writing, look in the Wicked Pleasures section for more kinky fiction.

Happy anniversary, Ravenous Romance!

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!

It seems I can’t work at my laptop for any significant length of time without eyestrain in the form of blurred vision. Now, I don’t think anything pathological is happening to my eyes. I suspect it’s simply a matter of needing trifocals for my work. My laptop sits in arms length away from my eyes, which constitutes the mid-range vision that trifocals provide. And since my current prescription doesn’t compensate for that, I get blurry-eyed pretty easily. Next week, I’ll see my optometrist and press for the appropriate solution.

Struggling forward, I’m trying something new to keep up with blogging. I’m using voice-recognition software to compose my posts. For the most part, the software works well, but the real adjustment is in thinking out loud. I’ve been composing at a keyboard as a writer for thirty years now, dating back to when I was a technical writer right out of college. I had access to word processor before secretaries did. Heck, I had access to word processor before personal computers existed in the workplace. So to suddenly compose aloud is a far bigger cognitive shift than I expected.

Consequently, it’s almost impossible to write fiction aloud, so I’m trying it for blogging where the stream-of-conscience thought process is more conversational and far less intense.

We’ll see how this works out based on how often I blog. More entries means I’m making the adjustment fairly well; less entries means, well, less success. I’m going to give it a try because ultimately it may help with everything from blogging to e-mail to writing letters to my family. Here’s hoping!

And I’ll let you know when the new eyeglasses are on order.