Friends who know me are likely gonna think what took her so long when they see my newest title, Story of L. But those same friends also know this about me: I either intuit things in a blink of an eye or I'm totally clueless. I mean if-it-were-a-snake-it-would've-bit-me clueless.

And I was completely clueless about the concept of recasting and modernizing an S/M classic.

But Ravenous Romance's editor director 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.

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.

The original 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 it reflected 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.

Tags: Debra Hyde | Story of L | BDSM | lesbian

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I'm originally from Iowa, so my eyes and ears perked when I heard about the recent lift on the gay marriage ban in Iowa.  Since I'm working on a handful of m/m and f/f pieces at the moment, I thought I'd share a few tidbits of info.  Lots of the national news agencies are reporting through the AP on different angles of the story.  What I'd like to share are some links of my hometown newspaper (The Telegraph Herald) and the newspaper of the most recent town in Iowa where I lived prior to moving to Tennessee (The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier). The Des Moines Register has recently run enough stories on the issue that they now have a quick link at the top of their home page devoted to the gay marriage issue.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=NEWS&template=keywords&keyword=iagaymarriage

I especially like this article and the picture :)

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090410/NEWS/904100376/1001/NEWS

http://www.thonline.com/forums/Comments.cfm?BlogID=274&MainSection=User%20Blogs&THBlogID=5#post274

The whole issue is a heated one on both sides.  To be honest, I was surprised the court lifted the ban, because Iowa is a fairly conservative state.  The more articles I've read on the issue, the more I've also appreciated that Iowa is a fairly liberal state as well in terms of civil rights.  Iowa was the first state to allow women to take the bar exam and practice law, the first state to desegregate schools, and one of the first states to strike down slavery laws.

As a part of my research, I have also recently discovered that gay marriage is totally legal in Spain, giving gay couples exactly the same rights as straight couples.  I studied in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (in the autonomous region of Galicia) in 2001.  I also have a B.A. in Spanish, so I'm not sure how I missed the news in 2005 when gay marriage was legalized in Spain.  I'm currently working on a m/m BDSM pirate short story set in Galicia between newlyweds.  :)

Tags: law | Galicia | Spain | Short story | civil rights | gay | lesbian | f/f | m/m | works in progress | news | newlyweds | BDSM | Pirates | Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier | Associated Press | Des Moines Register | Telegraph Herald | Iowa | Gay Marriage | LGBT | Jen Bluekissed

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My new story, "Closer," out today in the Love Notes Anthology was a fun story to write due to the theme - sex and music.  I got the idea for this one after watching a documentary about female porn stars.  I always wondered how women rationalized going into that line of work.

One of the ways is to create an alter ego.  One of the women in the documentary described her ritual to transform herself from plain Jane from Anytown, USA into "Janie Juggs," her character or alter ego, the porn star.  The ritual was mostly concerned with cosmetics.  When the make up was off, she was Jane.  When the make up was on, Janie was on the loose.

I know some folks in the BDSM community.  I know this type of ritual applies to the club scene as well.  By day, the folks who frequently BDSM clubs are respectable, upstanding citizens.  Accountants, lawyers...types the average person might not suspect of being involved in so called "deviant" behavior.  But when they go to the club, they dress up in costumes, and might be known there by another name.

I decided to apply the concept of this kind of transformation to someone who might frequent the club scene.  If you want to get the full affect of the experience I hoped readers would have, you want want to give the songs referenced in the story a listen, too.

I hope you enjoy it and would love to hear whether or not it "worked" for you.

Brandi

Tags: BDSM | Love Notes Anthology

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Tags: Frederick | I.G. | BDSM | ravenous romance | honeymoon | if you love someone | benjamin | mercantile

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It's only fitting that my story, "The Definition of Is," be included in RR's latest anthology Power Plays.  I wrote this piece specifically for a live reading I'd been invited to.  When the organizers told me that year's theme was "Sex & Politics," I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off something on that theme.  Then it occured to me that a certain former philandering President hadn't been in the news much lately.  When I started to wonder what it might take to change his ways, the notion of the First Lady putting him in his place came to mind.

I have read the piece a couple of times over the years and have to say that this story always gets a good reaction from the crowd.  I don't know what's more shocking...the First Lady's plan or the fact that I read it out loud...LOL!

I hope you enjoy reading it, even if it does make you blush ;)

Brandi

Tags: Politics | Power Plays | BDSM

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Hi there, I'm Jincey Lumpkin, Esq., and I'm breaking my cherry here at Ravenous Romance.  I'm not new to blogging.  In fact, I write quite often at my own site, DigiRomp.com.  Feel free to click on over and read more- if you're a lady who likes ladies.  Otherwise, you've got to pony up and buy my books here.  ;)

Lately I've been rekindling my love affair with steamy French cinema.  I watched Romance last night for the second time.

I saw it five or six years ago, but back then I found the story a bit scary- the S&M aspects seemed very edgy to me then.  Now it looks mild!

I love the way French films show women in all their complexity.  It's so far from this American airbrushed romance we're used to.  The truth is that we are beautifully complex.  I want to write about women who don't always make the right choice.

Tags: digiromp.com | lesbian | complex women | BDSM | pop the cherry | french cinema | romance | jincey lumpkin esq

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