Seattle and London readings, BDSM anthology Surrender, call for submissions for hotel erotica

In The Flesh Reading Series ended in December 2010, but former host Rachel Kramer Bussel has upcoming readings in Seattle (June 27) and London (July 2 and 4) if you know anyone in those cities. Also there's information below about her latest anthology, Surrender, and a call for writing for hotel erotica.

Facebook invite
June 27, 6 to 8 pm, FREE
Join Gotta Have It editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, contributor Shanna Germain ("Genesis") and burlesque performers from Naked Girls Reading for a fun, fabulous event at Babeland Seattle for short, sexy readings from Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex, plus free cupcakes!



If you plan to join me for a very sexy reading from my books Smooth, Orgasmic, Best Bondage Erotica 2011 and Gotta Have It at Sh! in London July 2nd, please RSVP to shop at sh-womensstore.com so they know how much bubbly to carry, and if you'd do me a giant favor and let your London friends know (you can do so via this handy Facebook invitation) I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm taking a bit of a gamble with this pricey trip but I think it's going to be fabulous and am very excited to meet these booksellers who are excited to host me and all these authors whose work appears in my anthologies. More info about them and their stories TK. I'll be joined by Janine Ashbless, Jacqueline Applebee, Justine Elyot, KD Grace, Kay Jaybee and Carmel Lockyer, all very accomplished authors in their own right, do look for their books. I just ordered some and have a few more to catch up with before my trip. And if you have any London press contacts please let me know at rachelkb at gmail.com with "London" in the subject because we are happy to send books, press release, etc. There will also be a July 4th event, location TBA, and I will be available for interviews July 1-5.

Official reading details:

Sh! Women's Erotic Emporium
57 Hoxton Square
London N1 6PB

Join New York-based author and erotica editor Rachel Kramer Bussel for her first UK reading. She will be joined by authors, reading steamy selections from books such as Orgasmic, Smooth, Best Bondage Erotica 2011 and Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex.

Free cupcakes and bubbly while supplies last!

Books will be available for sale and signing.

True to our female focused ethos, we ask that male guests are accompanied by a woman.

Spaces are limited, so make sure to book your space early as this FREE event will fill up quickly! Email us at shop at sh-womenstore.com and we'll add your name to the guest list!



Buy Surrender from:

Amazon.com

Kindle edition

Bn.com (Barnes & Noble)

Books-a-Million

Borders

Powell's

IndieBound (find your local independent bookstore)

Cleis Press

Introduction: Surrendering to Pleasure—and Power

Dear Professor Pervert Donna George Storey
Daddy’s Girl Teresa Noelle Roberts
Power Over Power Emerald
The Chair Lolita Lopez
Without Eyes Terri Pray
The Hardest Part Alison Tyler
Rapunzel Jacqueline Applebee
The Royalton–A Daray Tale Tess Danesi
The Sun is an Ordinary Star Shanna Germain
Belted Rachel Kramer Bussel
Lunch Elizabeth Coldwell
Schoolgirl and Angel Thomas S. Roche
First Date with the Dom Noelle Keely
In Control M. Christian
Wild Child Matt Conklin
Brianna’s Fire Amanda Earl
Forceful Personalities Dominic Santi
Veronica’s Body Isabelle Gray
The London O Justine Elyot
Pink Cheeks Fiona Locke
How Bad Do You Want It? Gwen Masters
Stripped Clancy Nacht

Introduction: Surrendering to Pleasure—and Power

I’m not surprised to learn that female submission is a hot topic. For the many women who fantasize about giving up control, bending over, hearing the click of a pair of handcuffs or engaging in kinky roleplay, that desire can consume them—and lead them to some wicked fantasies.

The stories here run the gamut from couples engaged in hardcore kink to the psychology of submission, with everything from coming in public to submitting to a Krav Maga teacher.

Whether you know you’re a submissive (sometimes or all the time, or just in your head) or you’re curious, this book rums the gamut and is an opportunity to read about things you might want to try, some you’d never dare, and some that will likely stay in your mind (and other body parts) for a long time to come. For me, the best erotica not only arouses my senses, as well as my libido, but takes me all the way into the character who’s experiencing such deliciously exciting erotic encounters.

These encounters are mostly focused on the women, the brats, the subs, the bad girls, but in them, you will find the most wicked of tops—wickedly insightful, wickedly mean, wickedly sadistic, wickedly keen on prompting pleasure out of these women who have chosen them to surrender to. These are the men who know the right time to push a woman’s buttons—and boundaries—who concoct vivid experiments in kink. Some of these tales are from their point of view, offering insight into what it’s like to desire a woman to be bound and at their mercy.

I shouldn’t have to say this, but I feel I must: these stories are not about men violating women. They are not about women being abused or mistreated. They are about women accessing a side of themselves that many of us bury, precisely because we feel it’s not “feminist” enough or is somehow otherwise politically incorrect to want to kneel, bend over, open our mouths, spread our legs, submit, and surrender. As Dominic says in “Power Over Power” to his student, Jackie: “You’re looking for power. In your own way, getting fucked rough like that will make you feel powerful. Is that right?” Vince echoes this to his wife in “Veronica’s Body” when he instructs her, “Don’t ever back down from me.” He wants a woman who can meet him in bed as an equal partner even as he whips her until she trembles. When he disciplines her, it’s an act of love as much as, if not more than, it’s an act of kinkiness.

Good BDSM erotica makes you understand all the emotions that can come into play when, well, playing: there can be uncertainty, nervousness, fear, excitement. I selected each of the 22 stories in Surrender because they’re blazingly hot and because they illuminate some aspect of submission that I think is

The authors of the stories you’re about to read understand the art of submission and the thrill of surrender, whether that’s personal space, sight (“Without Eyes” by Terri Pray) or culinary choices (“Lunch” by Elizabeth Coldwell).

What the women here want is to give up part of themselves to gain something else. They may still be skittish, but overcoming their fears, surrendering to them, yields beauty, pleasure and, in its way, power.

In “Dear Professor Pervert,” a student learns several very kinky lessons about how to get off—and follow orders.

With “Daddy’s Girl,” Teresa Noelle Roberts takes the topic of Daddy/girl play which, I fully confess, is not something I normally enjoy reading, and turns it into a kinky roleplaying tale which stays hot throughout while also explaining the Daddy dynamic. Emerald delivers a riveting tale of power play in “Power Over Power,” where a Krav Maga instructor shows his student that the heart of her true power lies in her owning her submission and baring more than just her body.

In “The Chair,” the title object becomes the ultimate sex toy for Cal to use in teasing and tormenting Lily, while Susan in “Without Eyes,” goes from being irate to being on her knees in moments.

Anticipation is often the hottest part of a scene, with the sub wondering when and how the action will happen. In “The Hardest Part,” Alison Tyler offers up the exquisite torture of waiting for your kinky fantasies to come true:

I’m over his lap. I’ve been needing a spanking for too long, and he’s been making me wait. In spite of everything I’ve done, he’s ignored the signals. I’ve been bratty. I’ve been bad. I may as well have worn a t-shirt with the words SPANK ME in bold scarlet letters across the front.

With “Rapunzel,” Jacqueline Applebee, when a woman agrees to give up her long locks, she bares herself in an unexpected way (any woman who’s ever submitted to a hairdresser’s chair knows the tension and masochism involved!), while in “The Royalton-A Daray Tale,” Tess Danesi makes a kinky fantasy come true in an upscale hotel.

With “The Sun is an Ordinary Story,” Shanna Germain takes something you wouldn’t expect to read about in an erotica book—cancer—and offers up a vitally human story about the transformative power of kink and how getting back to playing rough makes one woman feel more alive than ever.

In my story “Belted,” the narrator wonders what it is about her lover that turns her on quite so much:

Is it the belt that makes you come? The leather, the thrash, the pain, the jolt? Is it the force behind it? Is it the noises he makes as he does it, the hitches of breath that are nothing like your shuddering sobs but are music to your ears nonetheless--is that what makes you finally go over the edge? Is it him holding you down, him promising you pain that may or may not come?

I love stories that delve into the psychology of BDSM, and few writers do that better than Elizabeth Coldwell. With “Lunch,” she will not only have you eyeing your fellow deli customers with a keener eye, but also showing the erotic potential within even the smallest decisions, once we’ve given up the decision making power to someone else.

Erotica impresario Thomas S. Roche gives us “Schoolgirl and Angel,” a top and his sub find a new plaything at a dungeon party, one who’s a little more mouthy than they’re used to. Serena winds up taking off her panties in public, among many other things, in “First Date with the Dom.”

Sometimes a bratty girl doesn’t even know she’s begging to be put in her place, or how much she might like someone else taking control. In “Wild Child” by Matt Conklin, an older man sees beneath the veneer of the young woman sitting next to him on a plane, all too happy to show her what true rebellion is all about. In “Brianna’s Fire” by Amanda Earl, a slave is put to the test, while “Forceful Personalities” come into play when Christa takes a while to submit, even though she wants to, desperately. That tension between wanting to be as slutty as we are in our fantasies, and actually doing it, plays out in numerous other stories as well. A tourist attraction provides a welcome opportunity for public sex in Justine Elyot’s “The London O.”

“In Control” takes us online, to a chat room whose participants XX, while in Fiona Locke’s “Pink Cheeks,” a woman who’s been lurking in another online forum finds out what happens when someone she sees every day finds out her naughtiest secrets. Finally, in Gwen Masters’ “How Bad Do You Want It?” she asks the title question, which I might turn over to you, dear reader. I have a feeling you want it very, very badly, “it” being all the most out-there, I-could-never (yet I can’t stop thinking about them) fantasies that flirt at the edges of your mind when you are getting yourself off, alone or with a partner.

Rachel Kramer Bussel
New York City

Call for Submissions
Hotel Erotica anthology (exact title TK)
Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
To be published by Cleis Press

Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel is looking for hotel erotica in all its forms. From couples on vacation to quickies with strangers, from luxury hotels to seedy motels and everything in between. I’m looking for swingers, sex toys, sex on the beach, voyeurism, exhibitionism, conventions, hotel bars, special hotel suites and more. The emphasis should be on creativity and adventure and the various ways hotels bring out passions we might not indulge at home. Specific hotel settings and use of themes beyond a couple having an affair are desired. See the IPPY Award winning Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories (book trailer and story samples are available at http://donotdisturbbook.wordpress.com/about) for an idea of the kinds of stories I’m looking for. All characters must be over 18. No poetry. No scat, bestiality or incest. Original, unpublished stories only. Pansexual stories will be considered, though the bulk of the stories in this anthology will feature heterosexual characters. Since submissions will be considered on a rolling basis, earlier submissions are strongly preferred.

Deadline: July 1, 2011 (earlier submissions strongly preferred)

Payment: Contributors will receive $50/story and 2 copies of the anthology on publication. Contract is for one-time rights (if you would like to see the exact contract terms, email hoteleroticabook at gmail.com with “Contract” in the subject line).

How to submit: Send double spaced Times or Times New Roman 12 point black font Word document (.doc only, NOT .docx) OR RTF of 1,500-4,000 word story. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) required. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to hoteleroticabook@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you'd like to be credited as. I will be accepting stories on a rolling basis so the sooner you submit, the better. Cleis Press has final approval over the manuscript so you can expect a final answer by October 1, 2011.

I've been seeing numerous recent submissions that do not conform to my guidelines. They are there for a reason and submissions not meeting these guidelines will not be considered. Please read and follow them or risk your submission being rejected or returned for reformatting. If you have any questions, please contact me at hoteleroticabook@gmail.com

About the editor: Rachel Kramer Bussel (http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com) is the editor of 38 anthologies, including Gotta Have It, Surrender, Best Bondage Erotica 2011, Bottoms Up, Spanked, The Mile High Club, Do Not Disturb, He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, Crossdressing, Dirty Girls, and is Best Sex Writing Series Editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, writes a column for SexIs Magazine, and hosted and curated In The Flesh Reading Series in New York for five years. Her writing has been published in over 100 anthologies, including Susie Bright’s X: The Erotic Treasury, Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and Zane’s Purple Panties and the New York Times bestseller Succulent: Chocolate Flava II. She has written for Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, Penthouse, Time Out New York, Zink and other publications.