Online home of Emerald, erotica author and sex activist"Sexuality is part of our basic nature. . . . It is the experience of ourselves as pleasure, as delight, as beauty, as value." -A.H. Almaas
If you haven’t heard (and perhaps you have, as I have seen it announced in a number of places), the indomitable Lucy Felthouse has created a new website for erotica readers and writers called Erotica For All. The “About” section of the site includes the following description:
The idea of the site is to bring together erotica readers and writers. You can get more information about particular authors, check out the latest competitions, read free erotica, find out about new releases and much, much more. The site will continually grow and expand with new content being added all the time.
I feel so appreciative of Lucy’s attention to and hard work on behalf of the erotica genre, and I have indeed found the site lovely so far. I have contributed an Author Profile to it, as have many of my colleagues—you can find them all in the Author Profiles section right here.
Among the many things the site offers (including a Forum for both readers and writers) are Free Reads, erotic stories posted on the site for visitors’ entertainment. :) Lucy has graciously received a story I sent her for this purpose entitled “Is Not Gold,” which is now up.
“Is Not Gold” was originally published last year by the now-defunct Ruthie’s Club, and I am delighted to offer it now on Lucy’s new site. I wish Erotica For All all the best, and if you are a reader or writer of erotica, I encourage you to drop by!
Love,
Emerald
He kissed her and then came inside her, gripping her hair as his orgasm unleashed the ferocity inside him, the desperate frustration and carnality and longing that had driven him since he pulled her from the bench. He could barely bring himself to pull out of her as he slid off her body, dropping his head to the ground as they came together, side by side on their backs on the rough ground, and she touched her head to his shoulder.
-from “Is Not Gold”
In addition to a beautiful cover, Fast Girls also has a book trailer! I have posted it here for your viewing pleasure:
(I love the way Rachel blows the bubbles away at the end!)
When I first read the introduction to Fast Girls, I knew immediately that I wanted not only to read the book but also to participate in the virtual book tour Rachel was announcing. I was compelled by the book (at least in part) because the table of contents included so many writers I already know and love, like Donna George Storey, Kristina Wright, Tess Danesi, Charlotte Stein, Saskia Walker, Andrea Dale, D. L. King, and Rachel herself. I was moved to volunteer for the virtual book tour by what I found to be the book’s striking introduction, written by Rachel and with which I felt a nearly uncanny personal resonance.
To be quick and dirty (which of course I love to be), I found Fast Girls one of the most exceptional erotica anthologies I’ve read.
To expound (which I also seem to like to do), I found working my way through Fast Girls a delectable experience for more reasons than one. Sure, I had my personal favorite stories. (I felt a special appreciation for the stories that included references to condoms/safer sex in scenarios not involving obvious monogamy, as that is a personal preference of mine in erotica.) It is not unusual for a story by Donna George Storey to be one of my favorites in any given anthology, and “Waxing Eloquent,” with its nuanced subtlety intertwined with an almost surreal-seeming fantasy—pulled off, to me, with unquestionable aplomb—was no exception. I found “Winter, Summer,” by Tristan Taormino truly mesmerizing. Since I have historically felt no sexual interest in women at all, a story with F/F sex in it that I find the slightest bit hot (certainly I can and have appreciated such stories in a literary sense, just not usually felt turned on by them) is one I find extraordinarily impressive—and “Winter, Summer” was one. I laughed out loud several times as I read “Married Life,” experiencing it as shining with what I’ve found to be author Charlotte Stein’s trademark charm and subtle humor. “Playing the Market,” “Flash!,” and “Princess” all had me panting.
But it wasn’t just the heat of the stories, which I indeed experienced consistently, that I appreciated about this book. It was reading stories from writers I already love so much and feeling thrilled that they had offered once again pieces that struck me as thoughtful, sexy, and delightful. It was experiencing every story and the volume as a whole as a work of art, moving and memorable and inspired. It was finding, as a writer myself, the gorgeous prose and compelling imagination this book encapsulated downright inspiring. And perhaps most of all, it was feeling so impressed by the stories these writers composed (and this editor compiled) that I simply felt a thrill observing the quality and creativity currently offered in the erotica genre.
It seems to me that regardless of how one personally experiences each story in this anthology, the genuine encompassing of heart, body, and mind is evident in all of them. This is erotica as probably anyone reading this knows it can be: conveying sex as transcendence, sex as understanding, sex as connection, sex as art. Even if a story doesn’t happen to reflect one’s particular erotic sensibilities, arousal is just one of the ingredients these works have to offer. Indeed, some of the stories that didn’t so much press my erotic buttons, if you will, stayed with me in other ways, impressing upon me something else or something bigger the way writing has the potential to do. If I didn’t find it arousing, I still found it extraordinary.
There were singular lines in this anthology that repeatedly struck me, like song lyrics that I love and quote and remember long after the music is over, that in and of themselves can make a whole song. Lines that with either their content or their composition or both cut through to my core, snap my attention into focus, and/or take my breath away. Lines that slice like lasers through the glowing prose surrounding them, that gleam even out of the contexts of their respective stories. Lines that show why the writing in this anthology impressed me so much.
For example:
I should have stepped away from the window to avoid getting caught staring but I didn’t. At thirty-seven, I was entitled to peer out my window without being shy.
-“Temptation” Kayla Perrin
He’s between my legs now, curling his hand around my mons almost reverently.
-“Waxing Eloquent” Donna George Storey
I anticipate and anxiously await being bound in leather restraints or some elaborate rope work, but instead she ties me up with one quiet breath.
-“Winter, Summer” Tristan Taormino
I vow that I will be as decadent and liberated in my sexuality as she is.
-“Communal” Saskia Walker
He stepped closer, his eyes scanning the Old English lettering [of the protagonist photographer’s tattoo]: THAT IS THE BEST PART OF BEAUTY, WHICH A PICTURE CANNOT EXPRESS.”
-“Flash!” Andrea Dale
It sounded so innocent, so full of promise and terrible hope; the harmonic resolve that all the terror and pleasure and sorrow could rest together.
-“Waiting for Beethoven” Susie Hara
Love is my communion and sex the sacred, blessed wafer.
-“That Girl” Cherry Bomb
“You might recognize this,” he said after the first blow struck me hard, and I knew: he was using Adrian’s belt, yet it felt different, and I realized that he could hit me as hard as he wanted, but it was never going to feel like it did with Adrian.
-“Whore Complex” Rachel Kramer Bussel
That and the pain that comes in waves, crashing hard against the shore, sending salty spray high into the air and then ebbing, making it impossible for me to venture a guess.
-“Lessons, Slow and Painful” Tess Danesi
That list is nowhere near exhaustive.
And last but not least, my favorite line from Rachel’s introduction was this: “But most of all, I’m excited that [these fast girls]’ve broken free of whatever messages we all receive about how a woman is ‘supposed’ to act, and instead they are bent on acting however they damn well please.”
Ah, that description itself practically makes me hot. It’s one of the things with which I most resonated when I read the introduction and that made me so excited to read the book and indeed participate in this virtual book tour (the full schedule and accompanying links for which you may find here). I hope it has the same effect on you, and if so you can find Fast Girls for sale on Amazon and/or read more about it at the Fast Girls blog. For me, the pages that followed that introduction were even more dazzling than expected, comprising a work exemplary of the educational, erotic, recreational, inspirational, artistic, and literary potential erotic fiction holds.
Love,
Emerald
*The subtitle of this anthology is “Erotica for Women,” which I will say does not resonate with me. I do not know what “erotica for women” would mean, as it seems to me to imply that women as a whole like some particular thing other groups wouldn’t (none of which has seemed evident to me). I appreciate that I have noticed several Amazon reviews by men that seem to note similar observations about said subtitle.
It’s halfway through the month, and in case you haven’t been following along, the virtual book tour for Fast Girls, the latest anthology edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, is already halfway over!
I don’t have a story in Fast Girls, but I’m excited to be taking part in the blog tour myself in a couple weeks. The Green Light District is the penultimate stop on the month-long virtual tour, so feel free stop back August 30, when I would love to host you!
And if you haven’t, I highly recommend picking up your own copy of Fast Girls. I haven’t finished it yet, but I’ve found what I’ve read so far so extraordinary that I feel no qualms about recommending the volume based on it alone.
“Ladies and gentlemen please, will you bring your attention to me?…hold tight cause the show is not over, if you will please move in closer…”
-Saliva “Ladies and Gentlemen”
Lila at ¡Qué sinvergüenza! excerpts from my story “Power over Power” and prefaces it with this statement: “The best kind of books, I find, are books that explain you to yourself, better than you ever could.”
Truly, there is hardly anything that could be said about something I’ve written that I would find more flattering. (She is speaking of the whole book, of course, but uses my story to illustrate an example.)
“All I really know is what I see, and everybody sees it differently, I wish someone could open up my heart and look inside of me, but I’m the only one who holds the key…”
-REO Speedwagon “The Key”
The complete lineup may be found on the Please, Sir blog here. As is evident from it, today’s host is the fabulous Erobintica! She has some questions, so visit her post to see what they are and join the conversation.
Please, Sir is out now in both print and Kindle formats. The introduction and table of contents may be found here on the Please, Sir blog (where my interview as an author in the book also appears), and the book has been reviewed this month at Erotica Revealed. And, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the hot Please, Sir book trailer here!
Love,
Emerald
“Push the limit, are you with it, baby don’t be afraid, I’m gonna hurt you real good baby; let’s go, it’s my show, baby do what I say…close your eyes, not your mind, let me into your soul…”
-Adam Lambert “For Your Entertainment” (a song from which I know I already used a different quote, but it seems so perfect for this theme I can’t resist using it more)
Some reading this may be familiar with the delightful blog Oh Get A Grip! (”Six sexy authors tell it like it is…”). Each week, the site’s six bloggers blog on the same topic, one per day, and a guest blogger is invited to blog about the topic on Saturdays. This Saturday, May 1 (which happens to be my birthday), I have been invited by the brilliant Ashley Lister to be the guest blogger for the week!
The topic this week is how/if our non-writing jobs or professional experience inform our writing. The six sexy authors of the site will be expounding on this topic throughout the week, which has started off as usual with the thoughtful and entertaining words of Lisabet Sarai. If you’re not familiar with OGAG, I recommend visiting not only now but regularly; I myself have found it consistently entertaining, insightful, stimulating, and informative. I much look forward to making an appearance there Saturday and extend many thanks to Ashley for the invitation!
Love,
Emerald
“People always tell me not to waste my time, to get a real job and get back in line…I got responsibility, that is my liability, I’m questioning authority…”
-Good Charlotte “Festival Song”
“I’m gonna hold you down until you’re amazed, give it to you till you’re screaming my name…can you handle what I’m about to do, ’cause it’s about to get rough for you…I’m in control, take the pain, take the pleasure, I’m the master of both…I’m gonna work you till you totally blow…”
-Adam Lambert “For Your Entertainment”
Emerald is an erotic fiction author and general advocate for human sexuality as informed by her deep appreciation of the beauty, value, and intrinsic nature of sexuality and its holistic relation to life. The Green Light District covers her writing and publishing news as well as social and cultural topics in relation to sex, particularly sex workers' rights. The sacredness of sexuality is always revered here.
Among the many things the site offers (including a Forum for both readers and writers) are Free Reads, erotic stories posted on the site for visitors’ entertainment. :) Lucy has graciously received a story I sent her for this purpose entitled “Is Not Gold,” which is now up.
