I love the Fifty Shades of Grey series for so many reasons.

As an agent who has toiled in the erotica fields for decades, it shows the world that there is a strong market for erotic fiction written, edited and purchased by women. This is smut for women.

Some of you know that I consider myself a “feminist pornographer,” which always raises a few eyebrows. But I believe this movement of women claiming their own smut is part of the evolution of feminism – proudly owning your sexuality is a big part of equality.

When I was a young feminist, I read The Story of O, and I was offended by it, because I knew that I was not a submissive woman. I’ve wrestled with this my entire life in my personal relationships, and since I was not a submissive, I assumed that the submissive woman fantasy was a male fantasy and part of the patriarchy.

Until I became the editor of erotic literature. And I quickly learned that the submissive woman’s fantasy of complete surrender to an Alpha man is the leading daydream of the majority of American women.

As a young feminist, I looked down on this “romance” troupe. I didn’t think it was possible to be submissive and a feminist, just as old school feminists were appalled that their well-educated daughters wanted to stay home and be mothers, or learn to knit and bake. We’ve been saying for the past two decades that feminism was about having choices, and one of those is to be free in our erotic fantasies.

In a recent review of The Hunger Games movie, a feminist reviewer complained about the need for “romance” in an otherwise action-based dystopian YA. I used to feel that way too, but I secretly went to romantic comedies alone so no one would see me cry. I was ashamed of my romantic side.

You can be a feminist and a romantic. It’s OK. And it’s really OK to want, and believe in, a happy ending, even if you know that in reality 50% of all marriages fail. These movies and books are an escape, and a hope.

Everyone wants to fall in love, and be swept away by its power, even men. But they don’t have the freedom women have. They don’t have the choices we have.

So, Fifty Shades of Grey brings all these issues to the surface and has proven, once and for all, that women love to read smut.

As an erotica agent, this means that there’s a whole new marketplace for these stories. The Story of O is 40 years old and the current edition is a dated translation (I’d love to see this in contemporary language). We need new fantasies, which EL James has given us. I am awed to see the birth of a new erotica classic, which is what Fifty Shades is (it’s the same feeling I had as I watched Harry Potter become a children’s literature classic in my time).

But we also need variety. So I am hoping that these books will usher in a publishing tidal wave of commercially successful erotica featuring M/M (that’s gay male romance often written by women) and erotica featuring dominant women and submissive men, as well as more lesbian fiction. And lots and lots of ménage featuring one woman and at least two men!

Tags: erotica | romance | erotic romance | BDSM | E L James | Fifty Shades | feminism | feminist

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Tags: reading series | erotica | erotic romance | Ravenous Nights

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Tags: reading series | erotica | erotic romance | Ravenous Nights

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Book III of the trilogy is finally here!

What happens when vampire Karen suddenly finds herself also the suburban housewife?  What happens when her "human" children slowly mature to become all that she strove to protect them from?  Horror, romance, and erotica unite in this third installment of the wildest vampire story you'll ever read!

http://www.ravenousromance.com/breathless/the-darkness-and-the-night-3-twins-of-darkness.php

Tags: vampires | erotic | erotica | The Darkness and the Night | Twins of Darkness | Lisa Lane | vampire twins | Doppelganger

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Today's the day! THE HOT STREAK is now live here at Ravenous Romance, just as baseball season is really starting to get going. It's a lovely sunny day here in the Northeast, so it's even starting to feel like baseball weather.

Time to think about warm summer nights with sensuous breezes and the slow build of excitement that comes through a baseball game. It's really no surprise that in American slang "first base" is kissing, etc... and making it to full on sex is "scoring" or "going all the way."

You don't have to know anything about baseball to enjoy the hot sex and romantic highs in THE HOT STREAK. Our heroine, Casey Branigan, is a middle-manager in a design firm in Boston and doesn't know anything about the sport beyond "three strikes, yer out." But she meets a baseball player, a pitcher named Tyler Hammond, at a photo shoot. He's funny and charming and nothing like the men she's been trying to date, who all seem to want to impress her with how grown up they are. (Not to mention Tyler is very HOT.)

Casey is quickly caught up in the major league lifestyle, traveling to all different cities to see Tyler pitch. She makes friends with a major league wife who looks perfect and prim on the outside, but inside she has as dirty a mouth as her catcher husband and a no-nonsense attitude that makes learning the ropes fun for Casey.

Of course, it isn't all fun and games... but I don't want to give away the plot! Ultimately Casey has to decide, is Tyler really the one? Is it love or just a fling? What happens when he brings up her name on national television? Read the book to find out!

Tags: The Hot Streak | Cecilia Tan | just published | erotica | baseball season

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Is this thing on? *blows on microphone*

Looks like it is! Hi again everyone. I have news and such! MIND GAMES will soon be available as a printed book as well as in ebook format. I'm very excited about this, even though I'm getting more and more into ebooks myself.

I read Cory Doctorow's DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM while I was on vacation in Disneyworld last month. It was really cool. I have an iPhone, so while I was standing in line waiting for a ride, I hopped on the manybooks.net site, and downloaded the book while I was standing there! And then I was able to read it while waiting in line, and also in the airport, on the plane, etc... all in my handheld which I was carrying anyway. No worrying about the book getting wet on the Kali River Rapids Ride (I ended up skipping that one, actually, anyway... only one pair of shoes...), not fitting in my pocket, leaving it somewhere by accident, plus saving trees!

So I'm a convert to ebooks. I'm so busy writing normally that the time I get to read is when I'm on vacation or in transit from place to place and the iPhone is so much handier than an actual book when it comes down to that.

I was worried that my eyes would get tired, but given that I spend all day every day in front of a computer already, it doesn't seem to have affected me negatively at all. I read for 2 straight hours on the iPhone during a layover at Dulles airport -- while sitting in the bright sun in a window, I might add -- and didn't have any problems.

Other news: my next novel for Ravenous will be out in about a month? It's called THE STREAK and has a baseball theme. Actually, they say we might change the title because they don't think The Streak is sexy enough... I'll have to see what the PtB say on that. Meanwhile, we've agreed on a new four-book erotic fantasy series... but I'll say more about that in a future post!

Tags: mind games | erotica | ebooks

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I love to read in that field, for both personal enjoyment and for inspiration. But I've discovered that *listening* to the right people talk about their true sexual experiences also provides a huge amount of both pleasure and motivation. I've been happily addicted to several erotic podcasts. One of them may soon be broadcasting some of my unpublished work; I'll let you know when that happens.

As partial payback for the inspiration I've received, I am pleased to endorse the following podcasts:

Sex Is Fun

Swingercast

Open Source Sex

Happy listening! But be warned: your ears - and mind - will soon be hooked!

Tags: erotica | nonfiction | podcasts | inspiration

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“Write every day.” That’s something many writers tell others who want to write. “It doesn’t matter if what you put down sucks,” they say, “put it down anyway. It’s the only way to become a writer! Write. Write. Write!” That’s good advice. So is this: “Don’t write.”

I quit my day job to become a full time writer in 1994. Jumping into the full time writing fray was thrilling, liberating, and scary. Writing full time continues to be thrilling, liberating, and scary.

All this time later I’m still writing full time. Erotica. Horror. Historicals. Most days I spend hours upon hour at the computer, creating fictional adventures. Some steamy and graphically sexual. Some scary. Some set in the past. Some set in contemporary times.
Good fun, hard work. I write – a lot. I want to. I have to.

“Yep,” other writers might say, “That’s what she has to do. That’s what she’s gotta do. Don’t let a day go by. Write something everyday!”

But you know what I’ve discovered in all this time? Sometimes that old well runs low. And you have to fill it back up or you start scraping the bottom. What you come up with is thick mud and worm poop. You have to turn off the computer or lay aside the pen.

I took a vacation a couple weeks ago. Went to the beach with Mitch for five days. Stayed in an inexpensive motel on the oceanfront, one that was all the more inexpensive because it was off season. Ninth floor. Nonsmoking room. Balcony overlooking a pier and the great gray sea. I didn’t take a laptop. I didn’t take a legal pad, though I was going to. I was tempted, Lord don’cha know it. Instead, I just sucked up the vacation. I stood on the balcony to breathe in the frosty, salt-laced February air. I watched the people below on the boardwalk, pier, and sand, braving the chill in their coats and gloves, throwing sticks to dogs who leapt into the foamy waves to retrieve them. At daybreak I watched the orange slice of sun on the horizon, followed by several old men on the sand, waving their “treasure hunters” back and forth, looking for quarters and other valuable finds. One afternoon I watched a group of retarded people on a day’s trip with their counselor, sitting on boardwalk benches in matching wool caps, dutifully eating the sandwiches that had been brought in a wheeled cooler. I saw lovers buried deep against each other and against the wind, wandering past, unaware of the beauty around them, absorbed in the beauty that was their intimate connection. I observed the waves at high tide. The waves at low tide. The “Sand-Boni” leveling the sand soon after sunrise. Laughing gulls diving for leftovers. Herring gulls looking pissed and bored. Little sand pipers running around and just being cute. Pelicans in the sky. Dolphins embroidering the surface of the water.

Mitch and I also did our share of wandering. I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my jeans to test the winter waves. We meandered through the closed-for-the-season amusement park, studying the graffiti, the old newspapers blown against wire fences, the boarded up concession stands. I stared up in horrified fascination (I have a major fear of heights)) at the “Skyscraper,” a 165-feet high, 65-mile an hour Ferris Wheel-type thing that seemed content to be left alone for the time being. Bought cool, kitchy souvenirs made of shells and glue at one of the few gift shops open. Then, I challenged one of my fears and climbed the wrought-iron spiral staircase to the top of the 200-year-old Old Cape Henry Lighthouse. For five days I watched, I touched, I smelled (yeah, okay, shut up), I tasted, and I listened. I took it all in. And I didn’t write a damned thing.

Now I’m home. My mind’s well is full again. I’m ready to get back to work. Not writing for those five days was inspiring and enjoyable. And I’ll attack my writing once again with inspiration and enjoyment.

If you are a writer or aspire to be one, write, write, write! But also, don’t forget to shut down the computer some times. Spend a day in a park or an afternoon in a bookstore. Do some gardening, go wandering, sit in a coffee shop and experience the world beyond the screen. Don’t tell yourself, “Okay, I’m here to get inspired for a story, a novel and I better come back with some ideas.” Remove yourself from urgency. Just be there. Just suck it in. Relax. Don’t fear a little time to let the well refill, for it will. And when it does, drink deeply. (But spit out any residual worm poop.)

Love,

Morgan

Tags: writing | relaxing | erotica | historical fiction | horror | vacation | advice | inspiration | rejuvenation

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I don't know how I functioned before I descovered audio books. They have enhanced my life tenfold. I download them to my IPod, listening every chance I get.  My exercise time is no longer drudgery because I'm enthralled in a Ravenous Romance novel. It seems that everywhere I go involves at least a thirty-minute drive, but I don't mind ... not anymore. Orlando is a two-hour drive, but I actually look forward to those road trips now.

By nature I'm a visual learner, so I also feel it's excellent mental exercise, training my brain to concentrate audibly. The books on my TBR list are now systematically being checked off.

Besides the IPhone and Blackberry, many other cell phones have audio book capabilities. Or, you can download a book onto your computer's media player and then burn a CD to play in your car.

If you haven't taken advantage of the Ravenous Romance Audio Book section, check it out soon!

Hugs,

Regina

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Visit my website: Friend me:

Tags: erotica | playgirl | regina perry | audio books

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My muse, Zin, and I are celebrating because Cythnia Gentry and I finished our non-fiction project and sent it off to the publisher.  Zin also helped me with my taxes (refunds, yay!).  In return, we now are back to our next Ravenous book, titled CHAMPAGNE.  So much more fun!  Here's a brief synopsis:

Jeanette Wilson is an American girl on the trip of a lifetime to the wine regions of France. Unfortunately, she's trapped with her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Darryl, a self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, self-styled wine expert bent on swirling, sniffing, sipping, swishing, chewing, swallowing and occasionally spitting his way through the wineries of France.  Between his endless lectures and insufferable putdowns, her insignificant other is quickly turning her dream vacation into a nightmare.

But things change for Jeanette once they come to the zenith of their

French road-trip, the Champagne house of Chateau Roux-Dubois.  Their

hosts, Amaury and Marie-Elise Roux-Dubois, turn out to be both charming and attractive, and go out of their way to extend a warm welcome to her. And they make it very clear that it is she, not Daryl, who is their special guest, particularly when the striking Marie-Elise takes Jeanette down to the wine cellar for a very personal tour, followed by an unusual French lesson from Amaury.

Soon Jeanette finds herself caught up in a menage a trios with the Roux-Dubois, both intent on teaching her many things...

And after Champagne?  It's time for a little fantastical paranormal romance. Zin and I are enjoying stretching our sub-genre wings. 

Tags: champagne | taxes | erotica | happy

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I was interviewed a few days ago by fellow author Jesse Blair, and the question came up: Why do I write erotica?

It's a good question. Especially for someone who has been writing and publishing in other genres - historical fiction, horror/suspense, media tie-ins, nonfiction, mainstream - for quite some time. But it basically comes down to one thing. I write realistic characters and their experiences. Their lives. What the encounter, what scares them, excites them, makes them angry or sad or overjoyed. Yes, the stories often get pretty wild or scary and sometimes surreal, but the characters themselves are rooted firmly in reality. They love, they hurt, they bleed, they cry, they laugh, they tremble, they desire. We read about them because we want to experience what they are experiencing. We want to learn what they learn, go where they go, discover what they discover. So when the opportunity came to write about sexuality, it seemed to fit right into what I was already doing.

Granted, I've never been as explicit with my sex scenes as I have been with my Ravenous Romance novels and short stories. But real sex is pretty graphic, right? And so it didn't take much to open the bedroom doors just a bit wider so the reader could see more clearly what was going on. And what's wrong with a little literary voyeurism? I mean, isn't all fiction a bit voyeuristic by nature?

Love,

Morgan

Tags: sex | bedroom | writing | fiction | romance | erotica

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It's a weary truism that it remains taboo for women to talk publicly about what turns them on. Another of the contributors, Joan Smith, says she has been fielding scandalised callers demanding to know why a feminist such as herself would even countenance writing erotica. For all the jocular gloss, the media's imperative to identify Lette's writers carries an unpleasant undercurrent of the scarlet letter.

“So many cultures have quite strict codes governing female sexuality,” she said. “If that sexuality is relatively passive, then why so many rules to control it? Why is it so frightening?” There was the implication, in her words, that she might never illuminate her subject because she could not even see it, that the data she and her colleagues collect might be deceptive, might represent only the creations of culture, and that her interpretations might be leading away from underlying truth. There was the intimation that, at its core, women’s sexuality might not be passive at all. There was the chance that the long history of fear might have buried the nature of women’s lust too deeply to unearth, to view.

Tags: desire | writing | inspiration | erotica | sexuality

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How does an author write erotic fiction? Or more specifically, how does a writer create effective sex scenes in erotic fiction?

The key is to tune in to what turns you on. Granted, our inner desires are intimate and personal and often quite private. Some even startle ourselves! But if a writer wants to create steamy scenes that will ignite the fires in his or her readers, then the writer has to be willing to explore and then put on paper those intimate, personal, private passions. The writer has to be willing to lay it on all the line, to allow his/her imagination to experience all these things and then share them. I've heard tell writers should never write as if their mothers are watching over their shoulders. Excellent advice, especially for writers of erotica. Let it all hang out! If this isn't the case, then the scenes will read flat, uninspired, and unrealisic.

Years ago, the book My Secret Garden made a big splash. It as a nonfiction collection of women's private sexual fantasies. Talk about steamy! Those interviewed held nothing back, and it made it very clear that there is a huge variety in what gets our minds and bodies a-throbbin'! There are some fantasties that do nothing for me. Others get me hot immediately. The ones that get me hot are the ones I'll include in my fiction. I'll be the first to admit that I enjoy watching others make love (there's a lot of that in my Ravenous Romance novel Haunted Seduction). I especially am turned on by two men enjoying each other's bodies (see my short story in Merry Sex-mas). I love the idea of powerful, brooding men who have in some way become vulnerable and need to be tended...until they're strong enough to rise up and turn the tables in a very big way (such as what happens in my Ravenous Romance novel Man of the Shadows). I love the idea of sex outdoors (soon to come in my next RR novel, Mad Mistress of the Mountain). Hey, humans are all part of nature, aren't we? And there are other hot situations that get me going.

And you can trust me to be honest enough to share them with you in my fiction.

Love,
Morgan

Tags: romance | passion | desire | private | erotic | erotica | fantasy | fiction | sex

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I'm finishing up the PISCES book, "Teacher's Pet" today. I must say, it's been absolutely thrilling writing monthly zodiac erotic romance books and daily horoscope columns for Ravenous Romance. You'll note other authors discussing time and schedules and such, and it seems to me that many Ravenous authors are "do-bees" and "over-achievers."

We all seem to have day jobs, families, and the overwhelming obsession to write.

This is good for you, dear reader, as your will never have to worry about a lull in new stories coming your way.

I have lots to talk about, but first, I must return to my last chance editing and get this book delivered so that you may read about Adele and Devin's adventures through a painting in February!

Blessed Be,

Sephera Giron

Tags: pisces | astrology | zodiac | erotica | giron | sexstrology | lovestrology

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