The Green Light District

Charity Sunday: World Wildlife Fund

I’m sneaking in under the (deadline) wire to participate in this month’s Charity Sunday, hosted by author Lisabet Sarai. Charity Sunday, which takes place on the last Sunday of each month, is a blog meme that invites authors to choose a charity to support and donate a set amount to said charity for each comment received on their respective post. I appreciate the generous nature of this meme and am grateful to Lisabet for conceiving of and hosting it, and I am glad to participate this month! Please see the link list at the bottom of this post to visit the other participants of today’s Charity Sunday.

Usually, I would be likely to choose a more local charity, but it happens that the well-being of wildlife is resonating deeply with me right now. I appreciate the World Wildlife Fund‘s (WWF) mission and work on its behalf, and I am happy to donate $3.00 per comment left on this post to their worldwide work.

To indulge a bit of digression, during my last day job (numerous years ago!), the nonprofit I worked for in Washington, DC, was housed in the building owned by WWF. They occupied the main floor and rented space on the upper floors to other organizations. I always appreciated being under the same roof as they were while I was working.

Anyway, in addition to caring very much about the non-human animal and plant species of the world, I also align with the general understanding of the interconnectedness of all beings and the philosophy of living with respect for and appreciation of the Earth. On one of its pages, WWF mentions that we must “rebalance our relationship with nature,” and I agree.

One of the stories I wrote for Initiative: Tales of Erotic Boldness, my short story collection released back in May, is titled “Winter.” To me, it offers a microcosmic example of both the necessity and the enrichment of such reconnection with nature. Sherry, the main character, has embarked on a short trip to Alaska in the middle of winter for reasons even she is not exactly sure of. She feels a mysterious calling, and as she spends time in the stillness and depth of Alaska’s winter, she learns more about what it might be. (Note: While this is indeed in a book of erotica, this particular excerpt happens not to be focused on that aspect of the story.)

Excerpt from “Winter”:

Much closer, the mammoth glacier stood like a frozen goddess of nature at the edge of the hard blue water. Since it was covered in snow, the breathtaking appearance of chiseled turquoise glass she’d seen in summer pictures was missing, but that did nothing to diminish the simple massiveness of the millennia-old structure that moved with exquisite slowness but carved the very earth in its wake. Its power was unmistakable.

In the water in front of her, icebergs of innumerable shapes and inconceivable proportions floated easily, as though they had put themselves on display just for the gratification of enthralled gazes like hers. Reminiscent of frozen clouds, they glowed with mysterious hues of deep blue, offering answers to questions long since lost to the icy waters beneath them. A bald eagle soared over the lake and landed on a misshapen block of ice not fifty yards away. The bird’s talons dug sharply into the ice as it settled in profile view and stared straight ahead. Its white head, precisely the same shade as the top of the iceberg, gleamed against the mountainous background.

Though she didn’t move, Sherry had the distinct sensation of something inside her beginning to fissure, cracking open like the colossal sheets of ice that made up the land she stood upon. As the layer of distractions that dictated her day-to-day awareness started to dissolve, Sherry felt warily unaware whether that was desirable or not. She hoisted her backpack and started to hike, each step further illuminating the mystery of this land that was beyond anything a life of pressure and noise could hope to touch.

With encounters between strangers, hotly developing romances, forays into domination, and sometimes all of the above, Initiative delivers sizzling stories of sexual grit and satisfaction.

From audacious proposals to first-time exploits to newfound inner confidence, taking initiative delves into the risqué in these thirteen smoldering tales. An accidental catalyst invokes a bold move in “Fulfillment,” while the brassiness in “Shift Change” belongs entirely to narrator Stacey. “Who’s on Top?” sees a meeting between fans of rival baseball teams turn into a game of chance and wits, and “The Beast Within” offers a present-day “Beauty and the Beast” rendition that puts a twist on ugliness, beauty, pain, and pleasure—and the surprising ways they can intertwine.

Sometimes brazen, sometimes subtle, the initiatives between these pages always showcase the erotic and how it can both inspire and evoke our most emboldened selves.

Please do follow the links below to check out the other participants’ blog posts for Charity Sunday this month. Remember, for every comment left, the respective author will be donating a certain amount to the charity they’re honoring! Thank you so much for visiting, and be well.

Love,
Emerald

Posted by Emerald | Filed under: Sex+ Writing: Mine,Sex+ Writing: Others'| 6 Comments