Reviews nobody cares about, not even me*

I have way more interesting things to tell you about than silly book reviews and my writerly malaise but am too tired. Soon...

obligatory gross self-promotion:

Dirty Girls blog

Yes, Sir blog

Yes, Ma'am blog

For now, my books get some good reviews over at the Erotica Readers & Writers Association.

*I do care, in a way, so I'm half joking. It's more that I wish I didn't have to care. I wish I didn't have to be so worried about every last sale that I felt the need to do every itty bitty little thing to spread the word. Because the thing is, for me, it spreads me too thin. I can't be my own publicist, marketer, booker and also, like, write. I can barely write as it is, as witnessed by the last year of just generally fucking up. Last week was a not so surprising revelation in that department, but clearly I've not been well.

As for the reviews, well, I'd rather have a review that says something than one that just says "I liked this book." I guess as an editor I'm supposed to just care about the outcome, but that is probably the umpteenth way I'm not really cut out for this business. Or hobby, as it were, in my case, or what it feels like right now. Don't get me wrong; I'm glad the reviewers liked them. I'm also itching to get the hell out of the erotica ghetto (you know, like have Publishers Weekly decide to actually review my book). And no I haven't shown the most...ambition when it comes to getting out of the pink ghetto. I don't want to escape it entirely. I love coming up with the stories I am writing lately, really twisted and fucked up and fictional ones where I just let myself go. I love finding new authors who just nail it, all the true perversity of sex on the page. But I want more than that.

I guess I just want to make books that my friends want to read too, that I don't have to feel weird about if my postcards spill out of my bag. I want both, because I don't see myself quitting erotica editing anytime soon. But I am ready for something meatier, something more challenging, something where I do not have to hustle so damn hard. It'll happen, and I'll remake myself as a writer. Maybe when the storm passes, I'll be able to share my own self-sabotaging moments. But it's not just that, it's something bigger. It's doing things by rote. It's knowing you can. It's losing that excitement I once had.

Anyway, you can read the full reviews if you're so inclined, at ERWA.

I'd also urge you to read my friend Donna George Storey's column about her "lesbian love affair with melons." That's way more interesting than babbling about my books.

Dark "Dreams" turns up the heat and melts in your mouth. Biting into extra sharp "Cheesy Boots" will have you licking your lips. Suck on "Icy Hot" and let it dribble down your chin, but don't expect it to cool you off; it was written to keep you fevered...

Dirty Girls is food for your libido; twenty-seven savory dishes of het, lesbian, and gay erotica, hot vanilla and hotter kink. Relish it in small, sensuous nibbles, or binge until you tell your hostess you couldn't eat another thing, but, okay, if you insist…just one more bite.

Taking a long hard look at male submission has never been so much fun! Yes, Ma'am; Erotic Stories of Male Submission gathers 18 delectable tales of submissive men dominated by strong, sometimes ruthless, women who know precisely how they expect to be pleased, and woe betide any subs who do or say otherwise. Luckily, equilibrium rules in this book , which means in "Angie Speak," there are plenty of men willing to take the derisive jeers and sneers that come with being the lowest of the low. But do not fear, they are not the weak, spineless creatures you may at first believe. Their inner strength proves that they too know precisely how to fulfill their own needs, holding the ultimate power between the two opposing forces of dominance and submission.

The demands of a college professor's assignments send protagonist, Tina, to her creative limits, as her dominating "Dear Professor Pervert" searches for new humiliating ways to keep her masturbation journal deliciously kinky; analysing and marking each attempt for its style and content. Top marks for Donna George Storey...

Here are several sexy women wanting to give up her will, be controlled, made to obey and (occasionally) be told NO! Why? Because it makes them happy. In their element, which is where you'll be when you read this book. "The Power of No," as author Teresa Noelle Roberts says, can take you to the most pleasurable, painful edge! Whether vanilla or not, "Sitting on Ice Cream," (Lisette Ashton) can throw even the most reluctant exhibitionist into the theatrical limelight. So many ways to submit!